The Chinese Consulate General in San Francisco on April 29 presented awards to dozens of outstanding Chinese students currently studying in the US, as well as outstanding US students planning to study in China with scholarships.

The annual awards are sponsored by the China Scholarship Council (CSC), a non-profit agency affiliated with the country's education ministry aimed at providing financial assistance to overseas Chinese students and foreign students wishing to study in China.

In the San Francisco consular district, covering Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Northern California and Nevada, 21 Chinese doctoral students were each awarded certificates and $6,000 scholarships for 2014.

They were among 500 winners of the Government Award for Outstanding Self-financed Students Abroad, which was established in 2003 to reward academic excellence of self-financed Chinese students studying abroad, as well as encourage them to return to China or contribute to China's development after graduation.

"Since China adopted the Reform and Opening-up Policy, more and more Chinese students choose to pursue education abroad," said Chinese Council General Luo Linquan, addressing the awards ceremony.

These days, self-financed students outnumber government-financed students significantly, he said.

By 2013, a total of 3,914 outstanding overseas students had won the award in 32 countries.

On behalf of this year's award winners, Chen Sheng, a computer science student at Oregon State University, said the award represented the government's attention and care for overseas Chinese students and it would encourage them to make further academic achievements.

Another 17 US students were granted certificates and full scholarships at the ceremony once they were accepted by Chinese universities for this fall semester.

"The Chinese government also has scholarship programs to sponsor international students, teachers and scholars to study and conduct research in Chinese universities, with the purpose of promoting mutual understanding and friendship between China and other countries," Luo told guests at the ceremony.

Last year, the total of number of international students and scholars sponsored through the program reached 36,943.

Andrew Bowers, a student at UC, Berkeley, said he was excited about studying in China for a second time after a two-year stint he did at China's Tsinghua University from 2012 to 2014.

"China is more dynamic than any other place I've ever been to," he said in fluent Chinese. "I hope to learn more about Chinese society and engage in business in the future to promote relations between China and the US."

Since the establishment of the China-US High-Level Consultation on People-to-People Exchange in 2010, the two countries have achieved productive cooperation and exchange in education and culture, said Luo.

"There's no doubt that students' mobility reflects people-to-people exchange and serves as one important part of the cooperation and exchange between our two countries," he said.

liazhu@chinadailyusa.com