Chinese Pupils Arrive in Exchange Program : Cultures: It’s a first for the district. The children will study English at a Woodland Hills school.

Decked out in matching green-and-white uniforms and toting red backpacks from the other side of the world, 75 Chinese sixth-graders arrived at Los Angeles International Airport on Thursday, initiating the first large-scale student exchange program between China and the Los Angeles city school district.

The parents of the boys and girls from Guangzhou--a large city near Hong Kong--are investing thousands of dollars for their children to attend a semester learning English and American culture at Hale Middle School in Woodland Hills, said Ann Shepherd, foreign students admission counselor with the Los Angeles Unified School District.

The Chinese youngsters, who range in age from 11 to 14, are students of the Heroes School, a kindergarten through 12th grade boarding school that is the first private school in China.

The boys and girls will attend a special program built around English as a Second Language courses and taught by school translators who can speak both Mandarin Chinese and Cantonese.

The Chinese youth--who start classes Tuesday--arrived en masse at the Tom Bradley International Terminal on Thursday afternoon after 15 hours of flying, and then spent two more hours passing through customs.

Xiao Hao-Qing, 13, said he already felt a little homesick. This is his first time away from home. But the boy said he is eager to start his studies at Hale.

“Heroes School wants me to learn English better. Some were chosen, others signed up. I signed up,” Xiao declared.

Lai Wei, a 12-year-old boy, said he packed an American football in his suitcase even though his mission is to learn English.

The weary travelers boarded two big yellow school buses for the one-hour drive to the Warner Center Apartments, where each group of six children and one adult will share a two-bedroom apartment.

The students will study at Hale for the fall semester and will be replaced in the spring by a second group of youngsters from the Heroes School. The Los Angeles school district will start sending students--probably high school age--to China in the 1995-96 school year, Shepherd said.

While most of the visiting children have taken a year’s worth of English at the Heroes School, they are still struggling with the language.

Visiting Chinese teacher Wang Xian-Ying said one of her top students knows more than 200 English words, but the boy “admits to being a little afraid” of attending an English-speaking school.

“Coming here . . . the best students know they can improve, and even those who aren’t so strong, they know they can learn something too,” Wang said.

The project was originated over a year ago by Christine Tung, the director of the Sino-U.S. Business and Technology Exchange, a private company that works on Trans-Pacific business ventures.

“The purpose is to learn English and to have China open its doors,” Tung said, explaining that in order for these children to succeed in college--and later as professionals--they have to be able to speak English well.

“I told them that American people are very honest,” Tung said.

She said she does not worry about the youngsters falling prey to negative aspects of Southern California teen-age lifestyles because they are well-disciplined.

Tung began arranging for the student exchange last summer. It turned out to be a difficult job.

Tung said the entire project faced cancellation in the past few weeks because of complications trying to get passports for the children. Tung had to travel to China to make sure each passport and visa was approved by government officials.

After nearly 20 hours of travel, the visiting youngsters were more than ready for their first meal in the United States.

So Tung arranged for an American favorite: take-out Chinese.

Times staff writer Henry Chu contributed to this story.