Premier's letter brings Japanese students to China

Huang Yiming and Guo Yali ( China Daily )

Updated: 2011-08-04

HAIKOU - When Kayo Fukushima, an 11-year-old Japanese girl, sent a thank-you letter to Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, she did not expect to receive back a handwritten reply inviting her to visit China.

Premier's letter brings Japanese students to China

Kayo Fukushima attends a ceremony at the Hainan Museum in Haikou on Tuesday marking the start of a tour for 100 children from places in Japan that were hit by the March earthquake. [Photo/ China Daily]

"I still feel like I'm living in a dream today," Kayo said on Tuesday in Haikou, capital of Hainan province. "Miracles really do happen in this world."

She made the remarks while she was at a ceremony marking the start of a tour organized for 100 children who live in parts of Japan that were hit by a devastating earthquake in March.

Kayo, a sixth-grader from the Koriyama City Elementary School Kon Tooru, Fukushima Prefecture, met the Chinese premier after he had decided to visit Fukushima during a trip he made to Japan in May. Of all places in Japan, Fukushima was the most severely damaged by the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear emergency that had struck two months earlier.

During his visit, Wen shook hands with Kayo and touched the cheek of her little sister. Both of them were there with their mother and other local residents to greet the 69-year-old Premier at the Fukushima railway station.

Deeply inspired, Kayo wrote him a letter expressing her thanks and her love for Chinese characters, music and giant pandas. Her 7-year-old sister also drew a painting as a gift to the Chinese leader. Putting it all in an envelope with a photo of themselves, the sisters sent out the letter and painting later that month.

Wen replied on June 11, saying that he was very glad to receive Kayo's note and saying she was welcome to come to China.

During a two-day visit to Japan in which Wen met Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan, the premier invited 500 students from places struck by the quake to visit Chinese health resorts.

As for the official proposal to invite 100 students to Hainan province, that came in early June from authorities in the National Tourism Administration.

On Monday, the first group of 100 students, including Kayo and her sister, arrived in Haikou for a weeklong vacation on the resort island.

The children on the trip are between the ages of 7 and 14 and attend 23 different schools in Fukushima, Aomori, Iwate, Miyagi and Ibaraki prefectures and other places that were hit by the recent disasters.

Aoi Sato, a 14-year-old student from Shiogama city, Miyagi prefecture, said she was lucky to be able to visit Hainan. She got the opportunity by winning a lottery held among her schoolmates.

"I want to see more of the landscape, know more about the culture, especially the culture of Li people in Hainan," she said when visiting the Hainan Museum on Tuesday.

The group visited the site of the Boao Forum for Asia - a non-governmental organization that seeks to promote economic cooperation among Asian countries - in Qionghai on Wednesday. Next, it will head to Baoting Li and Miao autonomous county and Sanya, where the young travelers will visit tourist sites related to various ethnic groups, as well as an area dedicated to Nanshan Buddhist culture.

"We hope the children will enjoy the sunshine and beaches and have a pleasant recuperation in Hainan," said Lin Fanglue, vice-governor of the island province.

"Japan is recovering from the earthquake," said Toshihiro Nikai, a member of the Japanese House of Representatives and chief of the children's delegation.

"Young people are a top priority and should be taken good care of as part of the disaster recovery."

He said the children's trip to China will improve understanding between Japan and China.

Zhang Chen and Xinhua contributed to this story.

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