Enrolment of Russians surges at Chinese school, turning heads with blonde hair, blue eyes
Huge batch of Russian enrollees in Chinese-language primary school just across the northern border is said to reflect warming cross-cultural ties
A Chinese school along the border with Russia has welcomed a large batch of young Russians, drawing widespread coverage while underscoring how people-to-people exchanges between the neighbouring countries have warmed to a historically high degree.
A total of 127 children from north of the border began classes on September 1 at Heihe Primary School, a public institution in Heilongjiang province, according to an article posted by the Chinese embassy in Russia to its official WeChat account on Thursday.
The fresh enrollees joined 89 Russians already studying on campus, bringing the total to 216, according to the article.
It noted that blond-haired, blue-eyed Russian students could often be seen holding hands with their Chinese classmates.
“I used to worry that my daughter wouldn’t understand Chinese, but now she comes home every day teaching us how to say ‘thank you’ and ‘goodbye’ in Chinese,” a Russian mother from just across the border in Blagoveshchensk was quoted as saying. Her daughter’s daily cross-border commute takes about 20 minutes via a bridge.
To assist families like hers, the school has arranged a dedicated cross-border bus route and translation services, the article said.