The first "Chinese Bridge" summer camp for Russian high school students was launched at the Hanban/Confucius Institute Headquarters in Beijing on Sunday, attracting 172 students and teachers from all over Russia.

Two Russian students pose at the office of Hanban. The first "Chinese Bridge" summer camp for Russian high school students is held in Beijing on July 24-August 6, attracting 172 students and teachers from all over Russia.

During the two-week summer camp, students will stay in Beijing for three days and visit sites of historical interest before heading for Shanghai to attend classes with local Chinese students, where they will learn paper-cutting, calligraphy, and wushu. They will also visit the Expo.

Guo Lifan, head of the major cultural exchange event division, told METRO that Hanban has organized an annual summer camp for more than 3,000 students from 15 countries, including the US, the UK, Germany, France, Thailand, Indonesia, South Korea, and Singapore, since 2006.

"Since this year is 'The Year of Chinese Language' in Russia, we have launched the summer camp for high school students from Russia as well, and we are looking forward to making it a regular event in the future," Guo said.

After the launch ceremony, the students were invited to the Hanban exhibition hall, where they watched videos showing how Chinese characters have evolved, tried on traditional Chinese clothes, and tried out ancient musical instruments.

"I'm quite overwhelmed. They sound so wonderful," said Sasha, a music-loving student who plays piano and guitar, in front of bianzhong, an ancient bell set.

Alla, a Russian woman who has been teaching Chinese for four years, said more Russian students are interested in learning Chinese now.

"At the moment, there are 300 students from 12 to 16 years old in our school taking Chinese courses. But they have only one lesson a week. I think this is really a good opportunity for them to practice spoken Chinese and experience Chinese culture at the same time," she said.

"All the children felt excited about the summer camp. People in Beijing and the Chinese food have impressed us a lot," said Tatiana, the program leader of a school in Siberia.

Zhao Yajuan, a student from Beijing Language and Culture University, who is volunteering at the exhibition, said they had already accepted many students from other countries since the start of summer.

"They all showed great interest and kept on asking all kinds of questions about the things exhibited here," said Zhao. According to statistics from Hanban, there are 17 Confucius schools across Russia with more than 4,000 students registered. More than 200 courses on learning Chinese were organized in 2009, attracting no fewer than 50,000 students.