Chinese President Hu Jintao has expressed satisfaction with graduate students from Peking University who volunteered to teach in the western regions.

Hu wrote back to 18 volunteers on May 10, after he received a letter from the students who are now teaching in west China' s Tibet, Qinghai, Yunnan and Xinjiang.

Peking University has been sending graduate students to teach in rural areas since 1999, and has so far dispatched 12 groups with 163 members. Each student spent one year during the mission, and the service hours of all the volunteers has totalled 350,000.

"Despite hardships and with wholehearted devotion, you have played a positive role in boosting education in the western regions, and you have gained experiences, strengthened mind and improved abilities through grassroots practice," Hu said. "I am very satisfied with the progress you have made."

Peking University sending students to rural areas is an effective way to help young students learn from practice and the masses, Hu said.

He hoped the university would continue the practice, so that more young student would grow up to become the backbone of the country.

Hu's letter aroused heated discussion among the volunteers and staff and students of the university.

"It is a big surprise and a great honor," said Zhang Zhendong, one of the 18 volunteer graduates who wrote to President Hu on April 9 to report their work as volunteer teachers. "We had not expected a personal letter from President Hu."

"We realize the value of our work and feel the responsibility after reading the letter from Hu," the student who is teaching in Qinghai said.

Wang Yuechuan, a professor with Peking University, said that President Hu clung great expectation over the Chinese younger generation in his letter.

Peking University President Zhou Qifeng said the university would follow Hu's instructions to organize the volunteer teaching service in a better way.

The next group of volunteers from the university, with 17 members, would begin their mission in two months, according to officials from the university.