Around 550 Chinese students who were victims of a major earthquake last year will conclude their three-week rehabilitation program in Russia and leave for China on Wednesday.

The program, which is being offered in Russia's far eastern city of Vladivostok, was initiated by Russian President Dmitri Medvedev during his visit to China last year after a magnitude-8 earthquake hit China's Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu provinces. Chinese and Russian alike have applauded the program.

At the "Ocean" All-Russia Children's Care Center, Yu Jihai, an official with the Chinese Education Ministry, told Xinhua on Tuesday that the center's educational concepts had achieved good results in promoting the children's growth and comprehension abilities.

During various events organized by the center -- arts and crafts, singing, dancing and learning Russian -- the students demonstrated their talents and personalities to the amazement of their Chinese teachers, Yu said.

One remarkable change to be noticed in the traumatized children was that they had learned to greet and smile on their own initiative, even to "smile with their eyes," Yu observed.

What's more, the rehabilitation program was an important part of Sino-Russian cultural and humanitarian cooperation, he noted, adding that the friendliness and sound communication between the youths of the two countries was key to establishing strong ties of friendship between the two peoples.

Therefore, besides helping to heal the physical and psychological wounds of the young quake victims, the rehabilitation program had also promoted friendly communication and cooperation between China and Russia by fostering the friendship between the youths of both countries, he added.

Russian Deputy Minister of Education and Science Yuri Senturin told Xinhua on Tuesday that Russia does not regard hosting these children as a task, but rather as something "a friendly neighbor is supposed to do."

In fact, he said, the significance of the rehabilitation program had gone beyond promoting the rapid recovery of these children. More importantly, the children from China's quake-hit areas had sown seeds of friendship on Russian soil, he observed.

"Friendship between children is the purest. Children coming here during the past two years have established deep friendship with their Russian companions and teachers. We hope that this could become an opportunity for Russia and China to further advance their cooperation and ties," he said.

Yue Bin, minister-counselor at the Chinese embassy in Russia, said that the rehabilitation program had created a new form of friendly exchange and communication between Chinese and Russian youths.

A total of 1,570 Chinese children took part in the program. Last year, 1018 Chinese students participated in the rehabilitation program.

(Xinhua News Agency August 12, 2009)