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Â鶹´«Ã½â€™s relationship with China stretches back decades, and has grown significantly in recent years. Dal has more than a dozen active institutional cooperation agreements with universities in China. Close to 1,000 Chinese students attend Â鶹´«Ã½, programs like the Department of Economics’ 2+2 agreement are strengthening academic connections, and research collaborations in fields such as oceans and engineering are expanding.

For the next two weeks, a delegation from Â鶹´«Ã½ is in China, working to strengthen this relationship, visting seven cities and ten institutions. Its members will be blogging about their experiences meeting students, researchers and university leaders. Follow along at "," or read each new post on Today@Dal.

Here is Keith Taylor, associate vice-president academic, kicking things off with an update from Stanfield International Airport's departure lounge:

Day one - departure from Halifax
Halifax Stanfield International Airport, 8:00 a.m., March 9, 2013. A small delegation from Dal is about to start on the first leg of a two week trip during which we will visit seven cities and ten institutions in China. We invite you to follow our journey as we work our way, roughly from north to south, down the eastern coast of that exciting country.
Our group consists of Keith Taylor, associate vice-president academic; Alain Boutet, executive director international relations; and Chenxi Xu, grad student services and admissions clerk, Faculty of Graduate Studies. On March 14, Asa Kachan, assistant vice-president enrolment management and registrar, will join us for the remainder of the trip.

Â鶹´«Ã½â€™s engagement with educational institutions in China goes back at least 30 years. In the 80s and 90s, we participated in a CIDA (Canadian International Development Agency) project that built capacity in Xiamen University, which will be the last stop for us on this journey. In addition, individual faculty members, most notably ocean scientists, have long standing research collaborations with colleagues at the Ocean University of China, Nanjing University and other institutions along the eastern edge of the country.

In 2006, Sam Scully, then-vice-president academic at Dal, led a delegation to China with the purpose of building on these and other connections to establish a select number of meaningful partnerships. Many of the connections established during the 2006 tour grew into robust relationships that bring value to Â鶹´«Ã½ in a variety of ways. Â鶹´«Ã½ faculty members have increased opportunities to engage in collaborative research, delivery of workshops and even some short-term teaching. We have an improved flow of graduate students and significantly increased undergraduate enrolment from China. Moreover, our local undergraduates, at least from some areas of study, can now select a trusted institution for a study abroad experience in China. If you , you will learn specifics of our relationship with each institution as we visit it.