HANOI - "Cooperation" and "optimism" are the key words that Dong Quang Vinh, a Vietnamese musician, used to describe his special bond with China.

Vinh, 31, who studied music in China for nine years, is a bamboo flutist and conductor.

He has been working on a project to combine Vietnamese and Chinese folk music as part of his efforts to promote understanding between the two peoples.

Some 50 km from Hanoi, the Vietnamese capital, a young Chinese volunteer teacher emphasized on "responsibility" and "friendship" when she talked about her experiences in Vietnam.

"This is my second year of volunteering in Vietnam. I have chosen to stay for the second term as I do not want to leave and disappoint my students," said Guan Li, 25, who teaches at the Hung Vuong University in Phu Tho Province.

The stories of Vinh and Guan are two examples of the robust and deep people-to-people ties between the two neighboring countries sharing similar culture.

COOPERATION, OPTIMISM

"When I was a little boy, my father often bought me cassette tapes of Chinese music whenever he went to China for performance tours," recalled Vinh, who was born to a family of musicians.

Since then, he began to like traditional Chinese musical instruments and found similarities between the folk music of the two countries, thus developing an interest in China.

In 2004, Vinh went to China to study at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. In 2010, he received a full Chinese government scholarship to follow a master course as an orchestra conductor.

Like Vihn, more and more Vietnamese youth are studying in China to pursue their career.

Figures from the Chinese embassy in Hanoi shows there are currently over 14,000 Vietnamese studying in China, while some 3,000-4,000 Chinese come to Vietnam for study each year.

In Vinh's view, "cooperation" is the key for him to build a career and also find his true love.

In China, Vinh made friends with musicians like Chen Xiaodong, who later worked with Vinh in many musical projects. He even married one of them, Chinese pianist Mo Shuangshuang, who he met in Shanghai and later moved to live in Vietnam with him.

Last August, Vinh and Chen brought the two countries' music on stage in Hanoi in a high-profile friendship concert, the first official collaboration between the two countries' traditional music artists in a concert according to Vinh's knowledge.

Coming to the prospect of cooperation between Vietnam and China, Vinh used the word "optimism."

"I hope that there will be more exchanges of visits between high-ranking leaders of both countries, thus creating more opportunities for cultural exchanges. I am very optimistic about the future of Vietnam-China relations," Vinh told Xinhua.