Chengdu student to attend Obama inauguration

By Li Xinran  |   2008-12-29  |     ONLINE EDITION

A 16-YEAR-OLD Chengdu girl has been invited to attend Barack Obama's swearing-in ceremony as President of the United States next month.

Li Zizi received an invitation letter in August to attend the ceremony, Western China Metropolis Daily reported today.

About 200 youngsters around the world received a similar invitation but Li was the only one from Chengdu in Sichuan Province.

She will fly to the US on January 17 to start her five-day special trip.

"We expect you to bring us something new," Li said was the message she would take to Obama.

As a very important person at the inaugural ceremony, according to her invitation letter, Li will attend an address by former US vice president Al Gore on January 18 and join a simulated presidential election at Yale University the next day.

Li attended a global youth leader forum in New York this summer and performed well as a team leader to solve a simulated "island crisis," which helped her win the Obama invitation.

Li was reported to have been the youngest participant in the New York activity, the newspaper said.

Born in Japan and educated there until September, Li has become a grade 10 student in a Chengdu high school where she is also studying Chinese.

Li, whose mother is a Chengdu native and now a university professor in Japan, has sponsored two elementary school students from disaster zones in Sichuan through the pay earned from her part time jobs.

She told the newspaper her ambition was to be a doctor to help people living in poor areas.