For students from the Mariama Ba Elite High School on Goree Island off Senegal's Atlantic coast, memories of their three-week journey to China last March remain vivid.

DAKAR, May 16 (Xinhua) -- For students from the Mariama Ba Elite High School on Goree Island off Senegal's Atlantic coast, memories of their three-week journey to China last March remain vivid.

Anissa Gningue, Aminata Thiam, Ndeye Faye, and Fatou Sene -- four students from the prestigious all-girls institution -- traveled to the Minxin Hong Kong School (Guangzhou Nansha) for a three-week program designed to foster cross-cultural understanding and learning.

From classrooms and laboratories to tree-planting ceremonies and hands-on traditional crafts, the Senegalese students participated fully alongside their Chinese peers, communicating in English and forging lasting bonds.

Their experiences offered a vivid glimpse into a dynamic and multifaceted China.

"I didn't expect Chinese students to be so open and inclusive. They welcomed us with warmth," Gningue said, recalling her time at the school in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou. "We not only attended classes together. We became friends."

Thiam, her eyes lighting up at the memory, shared, "I assembled a robot and wrote my name in Chinese for the first time. These moments made me realize that technology and my dreams are within reach."

Inspired by the experience, she is now actively preparing to apply to a Chinese university.

Faye was deeply impressed by China's pace of innovation. "The level of modernization in China far exceeded my expectations, especially the green transportation and smart technologies that make daily life so efficient."

For Sene, the visit offered a sense of cultural connection. She was especially moved by the Chinese concept of "yuanfen" -- a serendipitous bond or destiny -- which she said has a similar expression in Senegalese culture. "This feeling of encountering, knowing, and cherishing one another transcends language and borders."

Ramatoulaye Sarr, the Senegalese school's principal, also took part in the trip. "Traveling thousands of miles to Guangzhou, our students grew tremendously," she said in an interview with Xinhua on Tuesday. "This journey didn't just change the girls -- it sparked real cultural transformation within our entire school."

According to Sarr, the entire initiative, from proposal to implementation, came together in just a few months. "Yet the impact went far beyond our expectations. This was more than a sharing of educational methods -- it was a meeting of dreams among youths," she said.

Beyond broadening the students' global horizons, the trip also paved the way for deeper institutional cooperation.

Sarr noted that the school is now exploring a long-term partnership with Chinese counterparts, including teacher exchanges and co-developed online courses.

The student-authored reports from the trip have even been adopted by Senegal's Ministry of Education as reference material to encourage future international collaboration.

"We're sure to meet again in the future," Sarr said. "We are living through a moment of historic convergence, and it is the understanding and cooperation among young people that will shape the future of Africa-China relations."