Kelly Kleinkort from the USA said she learned what she was missing from books. "Even though I have come to China for about 15 years, I wouldn't have been able to talk to officers at the courthouse, the police, and local leaders," she said, recalling her trip to eastern China's Shangdong province.

She said she was delighted to find that local Chinese governments had actually "built service centers, and set up a hotline online for residents to voice their opinions on government work".

Other sinologists who spoke at the closing ceremony said that the program is significant in that they have met and befriended sinologists from all over the world, which helped to broaden their horizons.

Some of them even volunteered to be ambassadors of their own culture, and said they would love to promote deeper communication with China.

"We would love to assist Chinese scholars who want to study Nepal; we look forward to cooperating with them," said Sarbottam Shrestha from Nepal.

Chinese scholars and officers attending the ceremony said they were amazed to find how fluent the sinologists can speak in Chinese and how much they know about Chinese culture.

To close the ceremony, Cai Fang, deputy head of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, quoted ancient Chinese poet Qu Yuan as saying, "The road ahead will be long and our climb will be deep."

He said that the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences would love to form long-term academic communication with the Sinologists, and hoped they will share a long-lasting friendship with China.