SAN FRANCISCO, February 11, 2002 - More than 50 educators and professionals in international education from across the country interested in emerging educational opportunities in China will visit San Francisco State University on Friday, Feb. 15, and Saturday, Feb. 16, for workshops on understanding modern China.

Wang Yunxiang, consul general of the Consulate of the People's Republic of China in San Francisco, will give the keynote speech to the gathering on Friday, Feb. 15, at 8:30 a.m. in the Seven Hills Conference Center, located on the S.F. State campus at 1600 Holloway Ave.

Workshops will explore recent economic, political, social and cultural developments in China and the role that higher education can play in the future.

Participants will learn more about emulating S.F. State's successful partnerships in China. For example, the university's Asian American Studies Department now begins its third year of a partnership with Ji'nan University's Institutes of Overseas Chinese Studies in Guangzhou. Several S.F. State faculty members teach there during summer and this past July a dozen S.F. State students traveled through the countryside of China as part of a month-long study program sponsored by S.F. State's Asian American Studies Department. And S.F. State has just embarked on an ambitious program to train 10,000 bank workers in modern banking techniques.

In addition to numerous presentations by SFSU scholars and officials from China, the gathering also includes sessions on issues such as Chinese culture and management behavior, the modernization of health and opportunities for educational exchange and collaboration in China.

The gathering, titled "Understanding Contemporary China: Modernization and International Education," is sponsored by the Educational Information and Resources Branch of the U.S. Department of State and NAFSA: Association of International Educators.

The workshops, which will all be held in the Seven Hills Conference Center, start Friday, Feb. 15, from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. and continue Saturday, Feb. 16, from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Note to editors: For more information, contact Yenbo Wu, director of International Programs at S.F. State, at (415) 338-6377 or call Ted DeAdwyler of the S.F. State Public Affairs Office at (415) 338-7110.