"I know that people from China's Sichuan province like chili and rice, so our priority is to make sure every kid can have them everyday," said Vitaly Marzoev, director of the All-Russia Children's Care Center, in an interview with Xinhua Tuesday.

When the deadly earthquake that killed nearly 70,000 people in Sichuan province took place in May, Marzoev was on vacation in Sanya, Hainan province in southern China.

Students from southwest China's Sichuan Province play in the sea in Tuapse, a city on Russia's Black Sea coast, July 21, 2008. A group of 184 students from China's earthquake-hit province of Sichuan arrived at a summer camp in Tuapse on July 19 for a three-week rehabilitation visit. (Xinhua Photo) 

Upon hearing the disastrous news, he had made up his mind to invite some children from quake-affected areas to his center for recovery. He wrote to Russia's Ministry of Education and Science as soon as he ended the vacation and finally made it.

According to Marzoev, to get delicious food for Chinese children was his major concern. He even invited two Chinese cooks from Harbin in northeast China to prepare dishes of Sichuan flavor, fearing that the kids might feel uncomfortable with Russian food, he said.

Students from southwest China's Sichuan Province play with a Russian teacher on the beach in Tuapse, a city on Russia's Black Sea coast, July 21, 2008. (Xinhua Photo)