Xi Junfei, a Chinese student currently studying in Russia, re-visited the Ocean All-Russia Children's Care Center in Vladivosto on August 26.
The care center, which Xi Junfei considers his "Russian home," is one of the four biggest children care centers in Russia.
In 2008 and 2009, about 1,500 children from southwest China's Sichuan Province were invited by Russia to these child care centers, after a deadly magnitude 8.0 quake rocked the region.
These children, who spent nearly a month in the care centers, wrote their stories as short notes, then put them inside a glass bottle to submit it into the sea.
"One of the children wrote that he wanted to study in Russia. He also thanked the center," Gerald Rybkin, the deputy director of Ocean All-Russia Children's Care Center told CCTV. "It is the first time for a bottle drifting (returns) back to shore."
Xi Junfei began studying at Far Eastern Federal University, after being authorized by Russian education authorities to study at state expense. He has been receiving financial assistance on living costs from China Scholarship Council.
"I really wanted to study in Vladivostok, so I could visit the Center," Xi Junfei told CCTV.
Zeng Mengping, who is now 25-year-old, had participated in the rehabilitation program. "There were a lot of young people there. Welcome, children from China." She told CCTV, referring to the welcoming ceremony. "They were speaking Chinese, so we could understand [them]," she said.
The children had received medical services and taken voluntary training in skating, swimming, toy-knitting and singing Russian songs.
"The children from Sichuan loved spicy food, so we brought in some chefs from Sichuan," said Gerald Rybkin
"When you dedicate yourself to helping children, you learn to understand how they feel," said Natalia Gagarkina-Petrik, a counselor at the center. "We used love to encourage them to open their hearts to us."
"Although we didn't speak each other's languages, we could understand each other, because our hearts are linked together."
The Chinese side also invited their Russian counterparts to come to China, to strengthen the bilateral ties.
After the invitation from Chinese officials, about 1,000 Russian students visited Beijing and Shanghai during the summer camps in 2010 and 2011.
Teachers and staff members from the care center visited Sichuan in September 2014, for witnessing the reconstruction after the earthquake and reunion with the Chinese children who have attended the center.
On August 26, the care center celebrated its 35th anniversary. Xi Junfei returned to the place that holds an important part of his childhood.
