The school tailored language courses to different proficiency levels with beginner, intermediate and advanced classes. Cultural lessons included Kunqu opera, martial arts, traditional Chinese painting and folk music. Practical activities took students to nursing homes, special education schools and local communities.

　　Some of the most important lessons had no textbook. Making dumplings, learning to use chopsticks and living with a Chinese family were themselves part of the curriculum.

　　The early years were not easy. Qian told the Global Times that during the first round of cooperation in 2013, the US side required extensive documentation and qualification reviews.

　　As the two sides gained trust, the process became more streamlined. A cross-border partnership that might once have been a one-time visit began to develop into a repeatable system.

　　A similar evolution has taken place in higher education.

　　The Sino-American Cooperation in Higher Education and Professional Development (CHEPD) 1+2+1 program, launched in 2001, has involved more than 200 universities in the two countries. Wu Qin, deputy director of the China Center for International Educational Exchange and director of the program, told the Global Times that the original model was relatively straightforward: Chinese students spent their first year in China, two years in the US and a final year back in China, earning degrees from both countries.

　　The program has since expanded into two-way exchanges, with American students and faculty coming to China for longer-term study visits, short-term visits and teaching exchanges.