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xinhua news agency, gwadar, pakistan, september 22, news: "to become a bridge of friendship between pakistan and china"

xinhua news agency reporter jiang chao and zhang jingyao

the autumn wind is blowing gently and the waves are roaring. recently, in an auditorium in the gwadar port free zone in balochistan province in southwestern pakistan, more than 20 young people from pakistan and china celebrated the traditional chinese festival mid-autumn festival together, with laughter and joy.

"happy mid-autumn festival!" zuhaib fayyaz, a 21-year-old youth from gwadar, said loudly in chinese at the event, "i am a student of pakistan-china vocational and technical college!"

gwadar port is one of the pillar projects of the china-pakistan economic corridor. in 2013, china overseas port holdings co., ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "china port holdings") obtained the operating rights of gwadar port and free zone. in recent years, the construction of livelihood infrastructure in gwadar has been continuously improved.

in 2021, the china-aided pakistan-china vocational and technical college was officially established, and was jointly built by china port holdings and shandong commercial vocational and technical college, gwadar port authority and gwadar university.

fayyaz has been learning chinese for less than a year and has passed the hsk level 1 after hard work. he has set a learning goal for himself: "to become a bridge of friendship between pakistan and china."

"the chinese people came to gwadar to help build my hometown. i have the responsibility to learn chinese culture well so that we can cooperate better," fayaz told reporters.

zhu ying, director of the international exchange department of shandong commercial vocational and technical college, told reporters that since the beginning of this year, china has opened two online courses, "basic chinese" and "chinese culture", for students of pakistan-china vocational and technical college. in october, more than ten professional courses such as "consumer behavior analysis" and "robotic engineering drawing" will be opened. a total of more than 240 pakistani students in the two sessions will benefit from it.

in addition, under the support and guidance of the chinese language exchange and cooperation center of the ministry of education of china, china port holdings and shandong commercial vocational and technical college jointly built a "chinese workshop" featuring "chinese + vocational skills" in gwadar. yunus ramzan, a chinese teacher at pakistan-china vocational and technical college, often takes his students to participate in activities organized by the "chinese workshop".

"the students in gwadar are very hardworking in learning chinese." ramzan, who graduated from beijing normal university and speaks fluent chinese, came to gwadar from another province a year ago to teach chinese. he told reporters: "i often teach students about chinese culture. we need to understand each other and deepen exchanges, which will be of great benefit to future development."

at the event, aliza jamil, a student at pakistan-china vocational and technical college, shared the chinese cultural knowledge she learned through online courses. "chinese people share mooncakes and admire the full moon on the night of the mid-autumn festival, which symbolizes reunion and love with family." she told reporters, "although the chinese builders in gwadar are thousands of miles away from their families at the moment, we spend this reunion night with them, which is a wonderful experience."

"from just a few cranes and small houses to the current modern ports, business centers, exhibition halls and various workshops and factories, the changes are huge!" jamil said that she is full of expectations for the development of gwadar, and the pakistani people have benefited from gwadar's continuously developing infrastructure construction.