A group of 50 quake-affected Chinese students, who are recuperating in southwest Russia's Krasnodar region, arrived in Moscow Tuesday to start a two-day visit to the capital.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is expected to meet the children on Wednesday. They will also visit the Red Square, the Kremlin and some other places of interest in Moscow.

Chinese Ambassador to Russia Liu Guchang held a reception on Tuesday evening to welcome the children.

Liu expressed his hope that the children will start new lives and learn new skills when they come back to China, so as to contribute to the reconstruction of their hometowns as well as the construction of their motherland.

He also believed that they will pass on Sino-Russian friendship to next generations.

Yuri Sentyrin, deputy minister of the Russian Education and Science Ministry, paid great tribute to the braveness the children demonstrated during the devastating earthquake. He hoped that they will make contribution to the friendship between the two countries after concluding their rehabilitation in Russia.

At the invitation of Medvedev, a total of 184 children from southwest China's Sichuan province arrived at the children's care center in the Black Sea coastal city of Tuapse on July 19 for their three-week rehabilitation.

An earthquake measuring 8.0 on the Richter scale hit southwestern China on May 12, leaving about 70,000 people dead, 374,000 injured and 18,000 missing.

(Xinhua News Agency July 30, 2008)