A special presentational tour for over 30 journalists is being held in Kazan on September 11th – 16th.

Before visiting the University on September 12th the delegates have already toured the Kazan Kremlin and the Vladimir Lenin House-Museum. Their further plans include a meeting with President of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov, a trip to several museums, and a steamboat ride to Ulyanovsk (Lenin's birthplace) which includes stops in Bolgar and Sviyazhsk.

Director of the Asia-Europe Bureau of Xinhua News Agency Fan Weiguo commented, “We have arrived on invitation from the State Committee on Tourism and are very glad to attend the beautiful Kazan. There is immense interest towards Russia in China. We have very pleasant impressions from this visit to the capital of Tatarstan”. As he told us, the delegation includes print media, radio and TV personalities, and popular bloggers. He also complimented President Minnikhanov, “Mr. President is known not only in Russia, but also in China. He has been in China multiple times, visited different provinces. He has also welcomed many Chinese delegations in Kazan. Meeting the President is an opportunity for us to learn more about the Republic and its cooperation with China”.

Mr. Fan himself wants to ask the President about new opportunities for Chinese tourists and the planned Moscow-Kazan high-speed railway.

He concluded by saying, “Since childhood we have known that Lenin and Tolstoy studied here. Kazan University is very well-known in China, and there are many Chinese students here”.

Meanwhile, news about cooperation with the People's Republic appear almost daily. For instance, this coming October 1st a group of six postgraduate students of the Institute of Geology and Petroleum Technologies will arrive to China to start their semester course at Southwest Petroleum University.