Twelve days of living and learning together in China added a new item to the bucket lists of both Sun Linlin and Adrian Castillo — to explore more of each other's home country.

The journey, called "A Shared Voyage: China-US Youth Friendship Program", began in late March, when Sun and Castillo, together with 18 other Chinese and US students, set sail from the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region aboard a research vessel and traveled via Ningbo, Zhejiang province, to Shanghai.

The 10 US students, the majority of whom had never been to China before, came to the country under the initiative proposed by President Xi Jinping in November 2023 to invite 50,000 young people from the US to visit China for exchange and study programs over the following five years.

In a reply letter dated May 23 to students participating in the program, Xi encouraged them to make new contributions to the stable, healthy and sustainable development of China-US relations.

"I am delighted to know that the students from both countries had embarked on an unforgettable friendship voyage aboard the China-US Youth Friendship vessel," Xi said in the letter, which was published on Thursday.

Xi noted that the story of China-US friendship is written by the people, and the future of China-US relations will be shaped by youths.

Target achieved in advance

More than 50,000 young people from the US have visited China since the launch of the "50,000 in Five Years" initiative, achieving the target two-and-a-half years ahead of schedule, he said.

Through these interactions, young people from both countries have reached out to each other, deepened mutual understanding, forged profound friendships and opened a new chapter in friendly exchanges between the two peoples, Xi said.

Noting that young people, who are full of vitality and dreams, represent the future and hope of China-US relations and of the world, Xi called on more Chinese and US youths to take up the baton of friendship, learn from each other, progress together and become "envoys of friendship" bridging the Pacific.

Sun, now a master's student majoring in ocean engineering and technology at Zhejiang University, said the students came up with the idea of writing a letter to the Chinese president on the second day of the trip.

As the program was drawing to a close, the Chinese and US students finished the letter together at their hotel, thanking Xi for the "50,000 in Five Years" initiative, which had provided a valuable opportunity for young people from the two countries to learn from and interact with each other. They also expressed their shared willingness to carry forward China-US friendship, she said.

For Sun, the initiative had initially been an abstract concept. It was not until she took part in the exchange program herself that she realized she, too, had the ability — and the responsibility — to serve as a bridge of friendship between China and the US.

She said she strongly identified with Xi's message in the reply letter, in which he expressed the hope that more young people from China and the US would learn from each other and make progress together.

"I really learned a lot from my teammates — their patience, calmness and ability to stay focused on the present," Sun said.

Castillo, a doctoral student majoring in aquatics and fisheries science at State University of New York, said that the reply letter "really is so surprising and makes our program feel very important in the greater global stage. Of course, reflecting back on our time on board, I feel as though it was the simple personal connections that made it so important to me."

Sun said that Castillo also taught her the phrase "bucket list". He told her that returning to China had been added to his bucket list — whether to go hiking, try rock climbing or simply reunite with the friends he made during the trip.

Xu Jingtong, a junior majoring in marine science at Tongji University in Shanghai, said that Xi's reply letter brought back to her the vivid memories of the voyage.

Xu recalled a moment on the ship when the wind was strong and the waves high, yet students from both countries danced on deck, exchanged gifts, waved the national flags of China and the US, sang songs and shared stories about their hometowns and campus life.

"That was when I realized that although we live on opposite sides of the Pacific, we have so much in common," Xu said.

The experience gave her friendships that she will remember for a lifetime, she added, and it made her feel that the students were helping to open a new chapter of China-US youth exchanges.