A group of 20 gifted students from Shanghai, China are learning about American culture firsthand at a Tuckahoe summer camp.

East is meeting West at Challenge Camp, which is currently being run out of the Cottle School. The students, many of whom speak some English, are using art and other activities to find common ground with their American instructors.

The enthusiastic students arrived Monday and will stay through the week. They're staying with local families, whose households are generally larger than those in China. The Chinese students will visit Washington, D.C. and California next before returning home.

The Challenge Camp has hosted students from France and Israel in the past, but there's never been such a large group of children from one country. Next year, officials plan to accept children from India.