Hanna Rudolph now feels good about everything on Chinese and China. "The Chinese people are good because they are friendly to make friends with; the Chinese food is good, stuffed dumplings in particular; the Chinese leaders are good because they care about their people and offer their children lots of hope," she declared. China's advantages, however, go far beyond Hanna's list.

Born in Suzhou, a eastern Chinese city, Hanna was adopted and raised in the US city of Portland when she was 18 months old. She was enchanted with the Chinese language class at Portland's International School the first time she was brought there at the age of 4, "I am not going to the nursery again. I want to come here. I want to be here. I want to learn Chinese."

Hanna's determination helped her become the youngest person from Portland ever to have passed the standardized examination of the Chinese language, an exam designed by a special office under the Chinese education ministry in charge of promoting Chinese outside China.

As a winner of the Chinese Bridge scholarship, Hanna returned to her birthplace in 2006 as a summer camper of a Chinese language activity held by Beijing Language and Culture University. When she visited China again a year later, she worked as a volunteer at a conservation center for giant pandas in Sichuan.

When a deadly earthquake shook Sichuan, Hanna wrote a letter to Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao, saying that she felt sorry for her peers in Sichuan but meanwhile felt relieved that they were taken good care of by the leaders of their country.

Hanna's adoptive parents are both doctors. Her father John Rudolph believes that Hanna will serve as a bridge between her birth country and her adoptive country.

"In my opinion, a person's dream is something they want to do with their life," Hanna defines her idea of dreams. "I believe they should follow their dreams, and listen to the call from their heart."

(Xinhua News Agency November 20, 2009)