Jamlick Mwangi Kariuki, a 26-year-old Kenyan, has always wanted to find a way to express appreciation for the great opportunities he has received through his special bond with China, which started in 2018.

Kariuki, who is from Webuye, a town in western Kenya, was one of the second group of 100 Kenyans who were sponsored to study engineering in China for four years. They went back after graduation to contribute to the African country's railway construction and maintenance.

Built with Chinese technology and to Chinese standards, the 480-kilometer Mombasa-Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway, a flagship project of the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative, was the first railway constructed in Kenya since the nation's independence in 1963.

"After the completion of the railway line, it was discovered that we lacked the capacity and the expertise to operate and maintain it. So that's why there was this program to educate Kenyan engineers to be able to take care of the railway line," said Kariuki, who returned to Kenya after getting a bachelor's degree in civil engineering at Beijing Jiaotong University.

With the skills gained in China, Kariuki and his Kenyan co-workers were able to maintain the Mombasa-Nairobi railway as well as the country's much older meter-gauge railway lines, in order to provide safe and reliable service.

Now local people account for about 80 percent of all railway employees, holding jobs that include operations and maintenance work.

The job in Nairobi also brought Kariuki a decent salary, so he was able to purchase basically everything he needed, despite the relatively high prices of goods in the capital.

Kariuki decided to return to Beijing Jiaotong University last year for a master's degree in order to fulfill his dream of becoming a railway expert.

Feeling grateful for the opportunities they received, Kariuki and his Kenyan schoolmates and alumni at Beijing Jiaotong University came up with the idea to personally thank President Xi Jinping because, Kariuki said, "the Belt and Road Initiative is actually his initiative to make sure that we are connecting the world and for universal development".

So they wrote a letter to Xi in October last year to express their pleasure in coming to China to learn about railway operations and management, saying they hope to serve as a bridge of friendship between the two countries.

On Jan 17, Xi responded to them in what Kariuki described as a "very long and personalized letter". Xi said that he was glad to see that the Kenyans have bonded with China through this road to happiness, a reference to the railway.

Kariuki said their letter to Xi was to show appreciation and not necessarily meant to evoke a response, but to their surprise, Xi was able to take time out from his busy schedule to write back.

"It's really inspiring to me that the Chinese leader still has time to consider the international student community as a whole and care about us," he said.

Washington Aburiri, who is studying logistics at Beijing Jiaotong University for a master's degree, has witnessed how a close friend of his has benefited from the easier transportation enabled by the railway.

"Now my friend is doing a good business of importing goods from Guangzhou to Nairobi and then transporting them to Mombasa through the railway," said Aburiri, who is from Nairobi.

Vicky Wangechi Wangari, who is from Nyahururu in central Kenya and is in her final year of graduate study at the university, said the message she wrote to Xi in the letter was "ten thousand thank yous".

The 25-year-old said she got an extra push from Xi's response because, as a young person, she sometimes feels that no one notices her efforts, even though she works hard. "Then somebody writes a reply and says you are going to continue the Kenya-China friendship and you can do this.

"Now when I wake up in the morning every day, I feel that I need to study hard not only for myself, but for the China-Kenya and China-Africa cooperation," she said.

The program that Kariuki and Wangari are involved with epitomizes China-Africa cooperation on talent cultivation, which has gathered momentum in recent years.

Kariuki said that besides the letter, they also sent the Chinese president a Nairobi-to-Mombasa railway ticket as a gift.

"The president told us that he had received the ticket. I hope that he will use the ticket to travel from Nairobi to Mombasa one day. I think it will be a good experience," he said.