Students from Confucius Institutes overseas get a flavor of the country through summer camps in Beijing.

On a Thursday night, laughter reverberates in a classroom at North China University of Technology in Beijing, where dozens of foreign teenagers sit in rows, learning to play the hulusi, a traditional musical instrument used by China's Dai ethnic group.

The music class is a part of this year's You and Me summer camp in the capital. It is organized by Beijing Foreign Studies University for students of Chinese from Confucius Institutes in Hungary, Belgium, the United Kingdom, South Korea, Italy and Bulgaria.

The teacher, Sun Yanan, shows the foreign students how to play Auld Lang Syne on the flutelike instrument.

"With the folk instrument, they get a basic knowledge about China's ethnic groups and some idea of Oriental music," says Sun.

She adds that everyone is also given an instrument to take back home so they can spread Chinese culture after the camp.

Gergana Slavcheva, a Bulgarian student who is in China for the first time, says: "I really like it. And though it is confusing for me because I'm bad at music, I will practice at home and maybe get the hang of it."

The 16-year-old, who registered as a student at the Confucius Institute of Sofia two years ago because she wanted to get exposure to the language, says she feels that Chinese is the base of other languages in Asia.

"That's why I decided to join this summer camp, to get to know China better and establish contact with people who share an interest in the country," she adds.

For Austrian Leonie Sajdik, the tour to Beijing is a reminder of the four and a half years she spent here when her parents worked in the city.

And that probably explains why she speaks Chinese like a Beijinger.

"I really like Beijing, as it boasts a rich heritage," says the 15-year-old. "And the camp is a perfect chance for me to be in a city where I grew up."

Leonie says she may apply to a Chinese university, since her family thinks highly of Chinese education.

The camp, a 10-day event initiated in 2008, offers foreign high school students an opportunity to visit museums, historical sites and Chinese families, practice calligraphy, paper-cutting or Chinese martial arts, and sample local cuisine like Peking roast duck.

Speaking about the camp, Mark Van Couwenberghe, a board member of the Confucius Institute in Brussels, who served as the leader of the Belgian group at the camp for the second time, says, "The schedule is very diverse."

He believes the summer camp is better than a traditional class environment, since the students get hands-on experience of traditional arts and crafts and can build friendships with people of their age group from different cultural backgrounds.

"Their social skills also develop because they learn as a group," says Van Couwenberghe. "So everyone goes back home not only with knowledge, but friendships that they can maintain for the rest of their lives."

This year, about 60 households in Beijing volunteered to be host families for the program.

Jin Yu, a Beijing resident and mother of a 17-year-old, has hosted four foreign students over the past two years.

As part of her duties, she has driven the students from the camp's site to Liulichang Culture Street, where stores sell Chinese paintings and calligraphy.

Speaking of how she got involved in the program, she says, "I volunteered in 2016 because I wanted my daughter to communicate with her foreign peers in a relaxed way, and show the visitors the lifestyle of a Chinese family."

Jin says she hopes the exchanges will also prepare her daughter for possible overseas studies in the future.

The BFSU summer camp is just one of a series of activities sponsored by the Confucius Institute Headquarters, or Hanban.

On July 18, a bigger summer camp of 760 foreign students, organized by Hanban for Confucius Institutes from central and eastern European countries, kicked off in Beijing