Thirty-nine British students arrived in Shanghai on Monday as part of Prime Minister Gordon Brown's Global Fellowship program.

The students, aged between 18 and 21, will spend six weeks in China to learn about the culture and language.

They will also meet local peers and visit the 2010 World Expo site, hold football matches and discuss issues such as the environment, family, education, globalization and creativity.

Some youngsters also have internships at multinational corporations such as HSBC and KPMG in late August. The program is a three-year project to send 100 British students annually to emerging market countries.

This year 41 of their peers are visiting India and 20 are in Brazil, according to the British Council Shanghai.

On their return, program participants will be invited to talk about their trip and share their findings with Brown.

"The program is expected to enable some of the brightest young people in Britain to see what's going on in emerging markets, in which Britain has already or will set up partnerships in the future," said Gavin Anderson, British cultural and education consul.

(Shanghai Daily July 22, 2008)