Seiyu Kiriyama, head of Agonshu, a Japanese Buddhist organization, has donated 3 million Japanese yen (about 210,000 RMB yuan) to the Beijing Xiaotangshan Hospital.

The donation was given to the Chinese Ministry of Civil Affairs on Wednesday, via the China Association for International Friendly Contact.

Kiriyama has worked to promote cultural, educational and regional exchanges between the two countries in recent years.

In 1998 when China was hit by intense flooding, Kiriyama donated 20 billion Japanese yen to flood victims.

He established prizes in 1997 at Zhongshan University and Beijing University for excellent teaching, and since 2001 has donated 3 million yen per year to needy areas in China to build schools as part of the Hope Project.

(Xinhua News Agency May 21, 2003)