Chinese writer Fang Fang, who participated in the program. Wu Changqing / for China Daily Unexpected reunion awaits Wuhan-based writer thanks to the initiative to boost Sino-German understanding, launched by Chancellor Angela Merkel. Yang Guang reports

Wuhan-based writer Fang Fang, 55, never thought that her first visit to Germany would fulfill a longtime wish of her 89-year-old German acquaintance, Martha Strasser.

Fang was in Dresden last June for a month, recording her observations of the country and its people in her blog, at the invitation of Germany and China - Moving Ahead Together, a three-year program launched by German Chancellor Angela Merkel in 2007 in Nanjing, to promote understanding between the two countries.

Strasser, the retired medical professor whom Fang had once assisted, had been looking forward for years to their reunion in her home on the outskirts of Munich.

Born into a German merchant's family in Wuhan, Hubei province, Strasser lived in China till she was 14. But she always wanted to come back.

She saw her chance during a visit to Tianjin in 2005, and insisted on going to Wuhan. A friend, who was also a friend of Fang, requested her to take care of Strasser.

But Fang knew nothing of the German language. She appealed online for help. To her surprise, many college students responded. They showed Strasser around for a week, and helped her locate her old residence.

Back in Germany, Strasser sent many invitations to Fang, but the trip only materialized with the Merkel-launched program.

Inspired by her one-month stay in Germany, Fang produced a novella, her most recent work, about a Chinese painter and his German helper.

Program director Michael Kahn-Ackermann calls Fang's visit, alongside those of fellow writers Liu Zhenyun and Yuan Ye, an "adventure", as none of them was versed in German, nor did they have any knowledge of local life and customs or know of any Germans who could assist them.

"Their observations and writings are different from those of Germans or even of the Chinese who know the German language," says the director of the Goethe Institute China, the German cultural and educational exchange center.

"They have helped (not just) the Chinese know more about Germany, (but also) the Germans know a different homeland."

Ackermann says the program, the biggest in scope and scale that Germany has ever organized abroad, has become a paradigm for the country's building of soft power. According to him, Germany will launch a similar program in India next year, based on the successful experience in China.

"It's a shift from cultural export to cultural cooperation," he says.

Developed around the theme of sustainable urban development, the program has moved around five Chinese metropolises and regional centers - Nanjing, Chongqing, Guangzhou, Shenyang and Wuhan - culminating in its visit to the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai.

On the agenda of Chancellor Merkel's on-going visit to China are dinners with the governors and mayors of five provinces and municipalities to express thanks for their cooperation and support.

Having been in China for 35 years since he first came to study at Peking University, Ackermann is well aware of the progress made in bilateral exchanges, especially since China's reform and opening up in 1978.

"But to my regret, the greater exchanges have not led to the expected deeper understanding," he says. "Prejudice still exists, and is sometimes even stronger than before.

"This is because with more opportunities for understanding, come more opportunities for misunderstanding," he explains.

"It's not easy (to wipe out prejudice and misunderstandings). So we still have a lot of work to do."