Sponsored by two Sino-Japanese youth exchange projects, the delegation comprises 20 teachers who teach Japanese, and 60 who teach other subjects.

They will visit Tokyo and Okinawa and live with young Japanese people, according to the sponsor, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), which held a send-off banquet for the delegation in Beijing Saturday.

"It's a rare chance for me to learn more about Japanese art education and the use of multi-media facilities in basic education," said 34-year-old Kang Yan who teaches politics at the No. 1 Middle School of Yinchuan, capital of northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.

Cheng Yuanyi, who teaches Japanese at the Hubei Normal College in central China, said his students had asked him to bring back storybooks, especially those about Japanese folk customs.

"Good Japanese books are more attractive in addition to souvenirs," 24-year-old Cheng said.

By 2001, some 3,000 Chinese youth had visited Japan through exchange projects of this kind since they were initiated in 1987, JICA figures show.

(Xinhua News Agency December 2, 2002)