[Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

A one-week student exchange program that aims to encourage mutual understanding between China and the United States kicked off in Beijing on Aug 14.

The Chinese-American fellowship, launched in 2007 by Tsinghua University, Peking University and Harvard University, has attracted 30 students from 12 top universities in both countries to develop a deeper insight into Chinese culture and social development.

The participants will visit China's Ministry of Education and leading enterprises like Baidu Inc. as well as communicating with manufacturing groups at Tsinghua University, and taking part in an educational symposium. There will also be cultural aspects to the program, such as roundtable dialogues on Chinese film as well as visiting museums and discovering the charm of the hutongs and tasting Chinese cuisine.

Wu Wei, deputy secretary general of All-China Youth Federation says friendly exchanges between the young people from China and the US is the basis of future partnership and cooperation between the two countries. He says he hopes that the younger generation could build a sound relationship with their counterparts across the Pacific Ocean using their providence, courage and intelligence.

The topic of this year's event is New Era, New Power, and the key word is innovation. At the opening ceremony, representatives from leading Chinese enterprises like Tencent shared their experience in innovating in different fields.

Zhao Weiguo, chairman of Beijing Jiankun Investment Group, and also an alumnus of Tsinghua University, shared how he began his own startup. He also analyzed the trend in the development of global IT industry and encouraged the youngsters to contribute to the technological and scientific advancement the two countries.