A middle school in central China's Hunan Province that was founded by a private organization of the US ivy league Yale University marked its 100th anniversary on Saturday.

The Yali Middle School in Changsha, Hunan, was founded by Yale University graduates of the Yale-China Association in 1906, principal Liu Weichao said.

The name Yali came from the Analects of Confucius, the ancient Chinese philosopher and educator, meaning elegance of expression (ya) and propriety of conduct (li), and was a transliteration of Yale, Liu said.

Over the last century, Yali had educated more than 70,000 graduates, including 14 members of China's two academies of science and technology, who had made contributions to the mankind around the world, he said.

Yale University president Richard C. Levin and former US President George Bush both sent congratulatory messages, the principal said.

"Among Chinese institutions, Yali is unique in the depth, breadth, and longevity of its ties with Americans, and we are proud that those ties are with graduates of our own university," Levin said in the letter.

Four graduates of Yale come to Yali to teach oral English every year and so far 129 have filled the posts.

"We at Yale continue to be very supportive of this fruitful, century-old relationship between Chinese and Americans, which in so many ways has set the highest standard for fruitful international cooperation and scholarly exchange," Levin said.

Founded in 1901, the Yale-China Association is a private, non-profit organization based on the Yale campus whose mission is to promote mutual understanding between Chinese and Americans through teaching and service.

(Xinhua News Agency October 1, 2006)