A student from Thomas S. Wootton High School in Maryland, the U.S., experiences a racing car made by Shenzhen Polytechnic University during a visit to the university’s BYD Institute of Applied Technology yesterday.

He is one of nearly 200 American high school students who arrived in Shenzhen yesterday for a series of performances and cultural exchanges. The tour, which runs from Oct. 9 to Oct. 18 and includes stops in Beijing and Shenzhen, is part of an initiative proposed by President Xi Jinping in 2023 to invite 50,000 young Americans to China on exchange and study programs over the next five years to strengthen people-to-people ties, especially among youth.    P3>Lin Songtao