US students visit Yungang Grottoes on cultural exchange tour in Shanxi

Thirteen teachers and students from George School in Langhorne, Pennsylvania, visited the Yungang Grottoes in Datong, Shanxi province, on Tuesday to experience firsthand the profound cultural heritage of the millennia-old cave art.

"It is hard to imagine that ancient craftsmen, without modern technology and tools, managed to carve such exquisite and intricate statues in such a distant era," said Emma Wey, a George School student. "The artisans also covered the cave walls and domes with murals, which left me truly in awe."

The Yungang Grottoes, one of China's largest cave complexes, date back more than 1,500 years and house 45 caves with over 59,000 Buddhist statues. The site was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2001.

Also on Tuesday, the group visited Shanxi Datong University (SDTU), where they joined teachers and students from the university to explore Chinese folk music and Western music. SDTU students gave folk music performances, and the George School students responded by singing the Chinese song Jasmine Flower (Mo Li Hua), drawing rounds of applause.

"China and the United States are far apart, with great cultural differences. That is why the friendship we have forged here through music feels all the more precious," said Clay Marentette, a George School student.

The five-day visit is part of an initiative to bring 100,000 young Americans to China for exchanges and study over the next five years. In the coming days, the group will visit Jinci Temple and Pingyao Ancient City and meet with students from Shanxi University.

The event was co-hosted by the Foreign Affairs Office of the People's Government of Shanxi Province and China Daily Youth Channel, and co-organized by the Shanxi Provincial Education Department and the Shanxi Provincial Committee of the Communist Youth League of China.

Li Jialu contributed to this story.