Ashutosh Jha, a journalist with Dainik Jagran, one of India's daily Hindi newspapers, is in China for the first time this month with an Indian youth delegation. His impression of Beijing, after two days in the Chinese capital, is that it is a "clean city" and that the residents here have "a civic sense." But how much does he really know about China?

Well, for starters, he failed to come up with the names of Chinese cities, except for Beijing and Shanghai. Yunnan was the only Chinese province that he could think of, as the delegation is traveling there soon.

Jha is not unique.

"I'm sure you cannot name the provinces of India and I cannot name the provinces of China," Mani Shankar Aiyar, India's Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports and leader of the delegation, told Chinese reporters. "There is a very big need to increase knowledge about each other."

Despite the fact that the China-India relationship has become the talk of the world today, the two Asian giants have yet to understand each other fully and deeply, a problem that some experts say has hindered bilateral cooperation. But the two governments are now ostensibly trying to bridge the gap.

Indeed, exchange programs featuring youth delegations may help make a difference. The 100-member delegation that Jha is a member of began its China tour on June 7 at the invitation of All-China Youth Federation (ACYF). Apart from Beijing, the 10-day trip will take them to Kunming, Nanjing, Huaxi Village in Jiangsu Province and Shanghai "in what is expected to be a very comprehensive exposure for carefully selected Indian youngsters," according to a news release from the Indian Embassy.

The Indian youth delegation, organized by India's Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, comprise scholars, young artists and sportsmen, social activists, young journalists and entrepreneurs as well as members of India's local self-governing institutions.

The program was agreed upon during Chinese President Hu Jintao's visit to India in November 2006. The joint declaration issued during Hu's visit contained a provision for inviting 500 Indian youths to China over a period of five years. When the then Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing visited India in February this year, it was decided that a 100-member Indian youth delegation would be sent to China in June 2007. An invitation was simultaneously extended to the First Secretary of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League of China and Honorary President of the ACYF, Hu Chunhua, to lead a 100-member Chinese youth delegation to India later this year.

The first-ever large-scale Indian youth delegation traveled to China in October 2006, following which a delegation of Chinese youth visited India in November 2006. This exchange was decided during Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's visit to India in April 2005.

Live and learn

Jha and his fellow delegates are expected to inject a much-needed impetus into China-India relations. Indian Ambassador Nirupama Rao said the relationship between the two countries would be strengthened by their visit, since they represented the future of India and, together with the young people of China, represented the future of relations between two of Asia's greatest civilizations and largest countries.

"I hope each and every one of you will bring India closer to China, so that you can be the true architects of the Asian century marked by the resurgent friendship between India and China," she said at a reception held in honor of the delegation at the Indian Embassy.