Right before Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's official visit to Japan, which will be on next Wednesday through Friday, representatives of Chinese students in Japan gathered in Tokyo last week to express their excitement and expectations for the "ice-melting visit."

On behalf of about 100,000 Chinese students in Japan, Li Guangzhe, chairman of the Organization of All Chinese Students in Japan, expressed best wishes for the premier's upcoming visit.

"We expect an all-around improvement of the Sino-Japanese ties brought by the premier's tour, and are eager to see that the water from the 'melting ice' becomes spring of the bilateral friendly cooperation," said the doctoral degree student of the Tokyo Institute of Technology.

There are currently about 100,000 Chinese students in Japan, and likewise, there are also a large number of Japanese students in China. Overseas students have constituted influential forces in promoting people-to-people contact between the two countries and should make more efforts to promote the development of bilateral ties, Li said.

"It will be top-level Chinese leader's first visit to Japan in six years, and Premier Wen will give a speech at the Japanese parliament, the first ever in 22 years," said Shi Jiangshui, a doctor from Tokyo University, adding that he and his Chinese schoolmates are full of expectations that Premier Wen's Japan visit will give a new motive force to the overall exchange between he two countries and to the development of bilateral ties.

"I believe that the premier's visit is to bring about a spring breeze which will melt the ice in the Sino-Japanese relationship, and the water from the melting ice will nourish the flowers of friendship between China and Japan," said Ren Yuqian, a Chinese student from prestigious Keio University.

"Premier Wen's visit will encourage Chinese students in Japan to contribute more to the Sino-Japanese friendship," She added.

According to official statistics, Japan is now hosting the biggest percentage of Chinese overseas students, and the current number of Chinese students in Japan is the highest on record.

(Xinhua News Agency April 9, 2007)