Ling Qing, president of the China Society for People's Friendship Studies, the event organizer, said the festival, an occasion for reunions of family and friends, provided a good opportunity to enhance friendship.

Isabel Crook, an 87-year-old Canadian who has worked in China for over 50 years, brought her daughter-in-law Marni Rosner, who is now a teacher in Beijing, and her grandson David Crook to the party.

Crook said having spent over 50 Mid-Autumn Festivals in China, she had become deeply attached to the country.

"We care about its future," said Crook, who, after retiring from a teaching post in Beijing Foreign Studies University, works with another participant at the event, Pat Adler, a British woman, with over 40 years experience in China, and others on a women's hotline offering help to laid-off Chinese women workers.

Dinnes Rudenko, a 13-year-old Russian boy, said in flawless Chinese that he was very happy to attend the party with his father, who works as a designer in a Russian company's China office.

Dinnes believed he knew "more about Chinese culture" than most of his Chinese counterparts, a claim he proved with a detailed rundown of the latest Chinese soap operas and traffic conditions in Beijing.

"I like both China and Russia. Besides, I have decided to enroll in a Chinese college, the renowned Tsinghua University, maybe.

"Of course, whether I succeed is another matter," the boy added with customary Chinese modesty.

( September 22, 2002)