HOUSTON, July 8 -- Nearly 30 students from Texas' Prairie View A&M University Wednesday attended an Open House event in the Chinese Consulate General in Houston, the fourth largest city in the United States.

The students, all college freshmen, spoke highly of the event, which helped them better understand China.

During the event, three diplomats from the consulate's political and media affairs office, cultural affairs office and educational affairs office briefed the students on China's politics, culture and education.

The students, who showed great interest in China and saw this as a rare opportunity to learn more about the country, asked many questions.

"This is a great program. I am actually learning Chinese from the Confucius Institute at our university. So I think this is really a good opportunity for them to learn other cultures, to learn Chinese culture," said Krystain Blankenship, head of the group and a learning community manager at Prairie View A&M.

"I always think China is big and full of culture, but I didn't realize how deep it was because I was so focused on America because this is where I live," Nyasha Alexander told Xinhua. "I am so excited to go deeper into the culture and understand better."

Racquel Archae said that she loves Chinese culture and the face change performed by a local artist, which she thought "was really cool."

"I didn't actually know that China has 56 ethnic groups and that is a surprise to me," Archae said.

The students were very pleased with the reading materials and gifts prepared by the consulate.

Yang Song and Duan Fenghua, Chinese diplomats at the consulate, told Xinhua that people-to-people exchanges are an effective way to enhance the mutual understanding and friendship between the peoples of two nations.

"Strengthening people-to-people exchanges is vital to the healthy development of the China-U.S. relationship. Today's event helped us plant seeds in the young people's hearts and today's students can be tomorrow's leaders (in spreading Chinese culture)," they said.

This is the sixth time for the Chinese consulate to invite college students to an Open House program over the past years.