A group photo of participants in the youth exchange program [Photo/Eastday.com]

A special youth exchange program was held in Shanghai on the afternoon of December 6. The mentally handicapped teenagers from the Middle Huaihai Road Subdistrict in Shanghai’s Huangpu District had a happy time with a group of special Olympic players who came all the way from the United States.

The team, composed of some special Olympic athletes and the students and faculty from a Special Olympics Unified School in North Carolina, America, visited Shanghai at the invitation of the International Special Olympics East Asia. In the exchange program, they worked with the mentally handicapped teenagers from Shanghai and created excellent paintings.

Teenagers from both countries paint together. [Photo/Eastday.com]

Teenagers show a painting they’ve worked on together. [Photo/Eastday.com]

In the activity, teenagers from both countries mingled with ease and became fast friends, demonstrating the power that Special Olympics have to transcend cultures. 

Before they visited Shanghai, the American athletes went to Beijing and Hangzhou. It is also reported that the paintings will be taken back to the U.S. and be permanently enshrined, as a proof of exchanges between China and the U.S. in the field of Special Olympics.