Student helps bridge Kazakhstan and China

By Murat Sultangaliyev

Ruslan Tulenov, 21, got striking fame after the PRC president Xi Jinping cited him as an example for the centuries long Sino-Kazakh friendship during the recent state visit to Kazakhstan.

Apart from political and economic topics, the Chinese leader told a story about a Kazakh student of Hainan University who regularly donates blood to save lives of unknown people.

The guy, as it turned, comes from Atyrau. Ruslan was born and grew up in this city and is a graduate of Public School 30 in the Avangard Municipal District.

After school he entered Caspian Modern College, but later chose to continue his studies in China.

Being Rh negative he used to regularly donate blood there, as his blood type is said to be very rare in China and Chinese people call it "the panda's blood".

To enter Hainan University, Ruslan spent two years learning Chinese first. He is now a third year student in Business Administration and Management department.

Besides academic studies he plays basketball and football in the university teams and takes part in the Chinese version of KVN (a Russian humour TV show and competition where teams (usually college students) compete by giving funny answers to questions and showing prepared sketches), his mother Farida Yerzhanova says.

After China's media circulated the story by Xi Jinping about Ruslan he was received by the culture and education minister of Hainan province and the university's principal arranged a dinner party in his honour.

He was given back all the money he had spent as tuition fees since he began studying and was given a scholarship until he completes his current program. On top of that, they proposed him to continue academic training at their master's and doctoral programs when he gets diploma, also free of charge.