This Fall, Houston area high school student, Karen Ortega, will embark on a yearlong study abroad program in China with AFS. For ten months Karen, who has never traveled outside of the U.S., will live leave behind everything she knows to live with a Chinese host family, study in a Chinese high school and gain an intimate understanding of Chinese culture.

This year, the state may miss its quota of international students who come to study various undergraduate courses under the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) scholarship scheme.  According to ICCR officials in Delhi, Bangalore University (BU) is to be blamed for this.

A Ugandan official on Thursday said that cultural exchanges and cooperation with China has deepened the people to people relations of the two countries.  Rose Namayanja, minister of information and national guidance told reporters here that over the years there have been increased cultural exchanges as Ugandan artists go to China and vice versa.

As a Chinese folk art festival closed in Washington on Sunday, burgeoning cultural exchanges between China and the United States has been deemed a more active and pivotal role in promoting bilateral ties.

Cultural exchanges and cooperation between China and the Republic of Korea (ROK) are on the rise, as President Xi Jinping's visit to Seoul this week is sure to provide more impetus.  Korean TV and pop crossovers to China are proving more popular and socially significant than ever.

As President Obama recently announced, the Department of State’s Diplomatic Culinary Partnership, in collaboration with Brand USA, supports the National Travel and Tourism Strategy goal of bringing 100 million international visitors to the United States by 2021. In July, five members of the American Chef Corps will travel to East-Asian markets to promote U.S. tourism and agricultural exports.

Social and cultural exchanges across the Aegean Sea are bridging the gap between Greece and Turkey.  A recent joint project by two photography groups was the latest in a decades-long series of cultural collaborations that experts say are important for providing political leaders with the impetus to resolve differences.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and his Greek counterpart, Antonis Samaras, on Saturday witnessed the opening of the new Heraklion Archaeological Museum in Crete, pledging to beef up bilateral cultural exchanges.  Describing civilizations as the crystallization of human wisdom, Li said cultural exchanges serve as an important basis for country-to-country relations.