VELLORE, India, April 7 (Xinhua) -- About 1,200 years ago, a Chinese Buddhist monk named Xuan Zang came to India to study Buddhism, which was made into a classic fiction "Journey to the West."

    Today more than 1,200 Chinese students are following the steps of Xuan Zang to India to study IT, English, finance and commerce, among others, in a dozen Indian universities.

    In this Tamil Nadu city located mid-way between two major Indian cities, Bangalore and Chennai, 414 Chinese students have become the largest foreign community ever in the newly established college of Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT).

    On Monday, Chinese Ambassador to India Zhang Yan brought a spiritual back-up to these students -- a bronze statue of Confucius -- to inaugurate a Chinese Language Study Center in VIT, which is also the first of its kind in Indian universities.

    "I am so happy to see such a large group of Chinese students in VIT and to realize that the number is still growing," Zhang told the students when he met them on Sunday. "Relations between China and India have entered a fast track in recent years, and you can become the mini-ambassadors of China to build friendship with Indian students."

    Addressing a vast auditorium with hundreds of Indian and Chinese students on Monday, Zhang said that education and the youth are the best way to build bilateral relations, as both represent the future.

    Touring the VIT, it is not difficult to find that the campus is very similar to Chinese campus in both style and composition. That is one of the reasons Chinese students can quickly get accustomed to the environment, which is very distinct from their home country in other ways.

    Shao Subo, the first Chinese Ph.D. student in the Business School of VIT, said that Indian colleges are good places to learn, because it is not possible to pass the tests without mastering good English writing skill and good spoken English skills. The Indian schools also ask students to present their independent ideas of the theories instead of merely memorizing the formulas and texts.

    A native of Hunan province who came to India in 2006, Shao said Chinese students can learn a lot from Indian students, as the latter are among the brightest in the world and the most hardworking ones as well. He said that Chinese students must overcome cultural shocks and learn to work very hard and very diligently in order to survive in India.

    Li Ming, an IT student from Sichuan Province, said that she has learned a lot since coming to India one and a half years ago and has matured a lot when being away from home.

    She said her number one concern is how to get a job after graduating next year with a degree from VIT. Her plan is to work for a Chinese company which has projects in India, because she can put what she learned here into use better in India than in China.

    G. Viswanathan, the Chancellor of VIT and former Member of Parliament of India, told Chinese and Indian students Monday that he was proud to be the pioneer in building a close relationship with China in education.

    Viswanathan shared Ambassador Zhang's view that as two most ancient civilizations and fast growing economies in the world, India and China should join hands in build a world for the future generations.

    He said that dating back to the fifth century, India already had an early center of learning similar to a university, the Takshashila which drew a lot of foreign students including Chinese students who came to learn Buddhism. The ancient Nalanda University was another example of the brilliance of India's ancient education and its internationalism.

    Viswanathan said his ideal is to build VIT into a modern-day Takshashila or Nalanda, and he chose China as a cooperative partner because China is bound to become the world's largest economy in future and India the third largest.

    With some 1,000 professors and 14,000 students, VIT has become a new star in India's colleges since its establishment in 1984, particularly the taking over of Chancellor's seat by Viswanathan, said Rao, director of international relations of VIT.

    Rao said he likes his Chinese students very much and has learnt how to help them overcome all kinds of their problems ranging from observing the college discipline to accommodating with Indian students and teachers.

    "There are a lot of cultural differences between Chinese and Indian students, and sometimes there are disputes between some students with laboratory managers and teachers, but I know how to solve them," he said.

    Sathya Moorthy, chairman of the Sino-India Education and Technology Alliance in Beijing, is the key promoter of the cooperative program between VIT and Chinese institutions engaged in sending Chinese students to India.

    A Malaysian national of Indian ethnic origin, Moorthy has been working on the program since 2003. His latest program is to introduce the Chinese Language Study Center to VIT with support from Chinese Ministry of Education and the Zhengzhou University, Henan Province of China.

    "I wish to make VIT a true center of Sino-Indian cooperation. I know the easiest way to build a better relations between the two countries is through education," he said.