Birthday celebration for CIIE's 'little leaves'
Sixty-four CIIE "little leaves" celebrated their collective birthday at the National Exhibition and Convention Center on Wednesday. Wearing birthday hats, they cut a birthday cake and sang birthday songs together.
The CIIE volunteers are nicknamed "little leaves" after the CIIE venue, which is shaped like a four-leaf clover.
A birthday party for "little leaves" is a CIIE tradition.
"When I was a freshman, I hoped to study in China because the China-Laos Railway had just opened, and I was very curious about what the railway was like," said Thor Teng, a Laotian student volunteer.
After completing four years of undergraduate studies last year, he was admitted to the School of Rail Transit at the Shanghai Institute of Technology to pursue a master's degree. What excited him even more was that he came to Shanghai on the newly opened China-Laos railway.
"The CIIE has shown me the latest technologies and products of various countries in the world, which further motivates me to study hard and contribute to the development of Laos," he said.
"It's very lively and touching and I have never celebrated a collective birthday with others," said volunteer Jiang Ziyi from the Xianda College of Economics and Humanities, Shanghai International Studies University as she took a photo with her friends wearing birthday hats.
More than 3,000 young volunteers are welcoming guests from home and abroad at the 7th China International Import Expo, according to Shanghai Committee of the Communist Youth League of China.