A Letter from Teachers and Students of China-Laos Friendly Nongbing Village Primary School

(Translated version)

Dear General Secretary Xi Jinping, President of the People's Republic of China,

We are teachers and students of China-Laos Friendly Nongping Primary School from Vientiane, the capital of Laos. In a few days, eight of us will go to Beijing, the great capital of China, to tell the story of our Nongping Primary School at the Thematic Forum on People-to-People Connectivity of the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation. We are excited and

happy at the thought that friends from all over the world will know about our primary school and the bits and pieces of our lives. There are so many feelings in our hearts that we want to share with you and with friends from all over the world. Nongping Primary School was built in 1964. Today, however, students can only learn about its shabby appearance in the photo, for friends from CFPD worked with us to rebuild the school seven years ago. In the past seven years, China is not

Pictures painted by teachers and students of Nongping Primary School

- 33 -THE SECOND BELT AND ROAD FORUM FOR INTERNATIONAL COOPERATIONonly a dream but also a warm companion. Every year, Chinese friends come to visit us and bring us a lot of teaching equipment, so as to improve the teaching and learning conditions of the school. In the past six or seven years, six lovely and respectable Chinese volunteer teachers have kept us company day and night and we have formed profound friendship for each other. In contact with Chinese friends, the students not only learned Chinese, but also learned about China’s famous mountains and rivers and the vastness of the world, and felt positive, sunshine, respect and friendliness. It makes us understand what makes China, our great neighbor, prosperous and strong, and what makes China put forward the great vision of the Belt and Road. Laos is a landlocked country, and it is the Belt and Road that connects us to the world. The Chinese dream and the Lao dream are connected together through the Belt and Road, and we can join hands to build our beautiful home!

From the news, we know that the party and government of the two countries will jointly promote the building of a community of shared future, further strengthen the foundation of relations between the two parties and the two

countries, and continuously enhance the well-being of the two countries. Now there are more and more cars in Nongping village, the roads become󰀃flatter󰀃and󰀃flatter,󰀃the󰀃nights󰀃brighter󰀃and󰀃brighter, and people live a richer and happier life. We believe that we will soon be on the train of China-Laos Railway to Beijing.

As witnesses and beneficiaries of the close relationship between the two countries and the construction of the Belt and Road initiative, we sincerely thank you, the proponent of the great vision of the Belt and Road. We have made the paintings of the students in the last two years into a picture book, hoping to show you the changes brought to us by the Belt and Road, through the school, hometown, the world and dreams shown in students’ paintings, and share our joy and happiness with you. We really want to say to you in person: Thank you!

We sincerely wish you good health and all the best!

Yours sincerely,

All the teachers and students of China-Laos Friendly Nongping Primary School

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