On the playground of a vocational college in southwest China's Yunnan Province, a group of Laotians are happily playing sepak takraw, a popular ball game in Southeast Asian countries.

Center of attention is a youthful figure who has come up with the Chinese name of Dongling Yang.

Yang, 23, has been in China for six years, majoring in international trade with the Xishuangbanna Vocational School after having finished his three-year senior middle course in the Dai Autonomous Prefecture of Xishuangbanna in southern Yunnan.

Yang is just one of the 103 Laotian students who are now studying at the Xishuangbanna Vocational School.

Laos is a member of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) which comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in South China shares a border with Vietnam, while Yunnan shares its border with Laos, Vietnam and Myanmar.

Yunnan and Guangxi have been making good use of their geographic advantage of sharing borders with members of the ASEAN and have made progress in educational cooperation and exchange with these countries, especially in higher education, in recent years.

Yunnan College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, for instance, enrolled more than 100 Thai students last year, while 6,000 students from Vietnam have received long-term and short-term training courses at Yunnan Normal University and Guangxi Normal University.

Yu Yizhong, head of the educational affairs bureau of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, said, "In the process of building a Sino-ASEAN Free Trade Zone there is an urgent need to foster international talents for China and ASEAN members and higher education acts as a bridge."

In addition to Chinese language and traditional Chinese medicine, students from ASEAN study at Chinese universities of higher learning major in subjects such as science and technology, ecology, economy, law, tourism, medical sciences and business administration, according to Zhang Shaohong, deputy chief with thesection for foreign cooperation and exchange of Yunnan Provincial Educational Affairs Bureau.

Dongling Yang, the Laotian youth who is now chairman of the Laotian Students' Union with the Xishuangbanna Vocational School, cited the fair treatment that students from ASEAN have received asone of the main reasons for a surge in the number of ASEAN students studying in Chinese colleges of higher learning.

"Laotian students are treated equally to other Chinese students- we pay the same tuition fees as the Chinese and can also be granted scholarships if we outperform others in our studies," saidYang.

According to Yang, the vocational school where he studies has assigned teaching staff to provide counseling service for the Laotian students on campus.

"In my home country, talents with Chinese language skills and knowledge in international trade are sure to be in great demand. Iam confident my experience of studying in China will help me fulfill my dream," said the Laotian student leader.

(Xinhua News Agency March 25, 2006)