Foreign students from eighteen universities in Beijing rang in the New Year Dec. 8 with an evening of memorable music and dance performances.

The New Year Party for International Students, co-sponsored by Ministry of Education and the Beijing city government, was held at Peking University .

Students from Tsinghua University performed a dance that expressed their deep feeling for Tibet . The dance featured 24 student dancers from Canada , Malaysia , Japan , South Korea , Vietnam , and Thailand .

Liew Ze Yan, who comes from Malaysia , is a sophomore at Tsinghua, majoring in biology. He also participated in the last year's performance.

“We started rehearsing a month ago. Many foreign students were actively involved in the training,” Liew said. “Parties like this offer a good chance to let people know about the life of the foreign students in Beijing .”

Liew said he was grateful for the opportunity to join the student dance group, as it gave him the chance to meet new people and have a more meaningful experience at college.

Also attending the event were Zhou Ji and Zhang Xinsheng, from Ministry of Education, Zhu Shanlu and Fan Boyuan, from the government of Beijing , Peking University President Xu Zhihong, and Tsinghua Vice President Gong Ke.

Reported by Li Han