Students from 12 countries – including Britain, the United States, Australia, Japan and South Korea – took part in Nankai University's first badminton contest for its international students, on Nov 7.

The director of NKU's Office of International Academic Exchanges, said that the university cares about the physical fitness of young people - including international students - and aims to offer them many opportunities for physical exercise, adding that the university hopes the overseas students will enjoy their time in China.

Hu Huicong, an international student from England, took part in the contest and later said that the event gave all the students an opportunity to enjoy themselves and make new friends – and also to communicate in their new common language, Mandarin Chinese. Hu added that some of the students hope to take part in other sports activities and travel together around China.

There are about 3,000 international students from 68 countries at Nankai University, and some will likely remain in the country after graduation – thus helping to improve cross-cultural communication.