The Chinese Embassy in the United States on Saturday hosted a China-U.S. Youth Spring Festival Gala, bringing together more than 500 young people to celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year. During the event, U.S. teachers and students who had previously visited China for exchange and study shared their experiences and stories from their travels in the country.

At the event, young people from both countries explored a temple fair together, admired Suzhou embroidery, made glutinous rice balls (Tang Yuan) and sugar paintings, tried on Hanfu — traditional Chinese clothing — and performed together.

“Under our leaders’ guidance, China-U.S. youth exchanges have gone from strength to strength, steadily injecting fresh vigor into bilateral relations,” Xie Feng, Chinese ambassador to the United States, said in a speech. Xie noted that over the past year, Chinese and U.S. youths have learned from each other, and moved forward hand in hand, reached out to each other, strived to be envoys of goodwill and collaborated on innovation, collectively “driving the change of our times.”