OXFORD - Negotiations for what is believed to be the state's first Chinese-Maine teacher exchange program have been successfully concluded.

"The partnership for us has gone to the next level,'' said SAD 17 Superintendent Mark Eastman, who returned last week from a 13-day trip to China. He and other officials finalized a plan that will bring a Chinese teacher to SAD 17 in the fall and send an Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School teacher to China next winter.

The group included Eastman and his wife, Cille; high school Principal Ted Moccia and his wife, Sue, an elementary school teacher; and high school social studies teachers Craig Blanchard and Jason Long. They traveled to the Zhe-Jiang Normal University middle school in Jin Hua, a city of about 1.3 million people, to make the final arrangements.

The trip was paid for in part through the Freeman Foundation, a New York-based organization with the goal of fostering relationships between the United States and Far Eastern countries. A breakdown of district costs wasn't immediately available.

"It was exhausting but exhilarating," said Eastman, who was tutored in Mandarin to make his official greeting to the Chinese delegation in that language. He said the exchange, if it comes off, will be the first ever between Maine and Chinese teachers.

Negotiations occurred around a large table that accommodated almost two dozen people, including two Australian teachers on a teaching fellowship, the American delegation and Chinese educators and Communist party members. Although the idea had been in the planning stages for several years, the Chinese delegation would not commit to negotiations until Eastman arrived at the table.

"The Chinese are very formal. They wanted the head of the school," he said. The negotiations detailed the terms of the exchange including the dates and times and where the teachers will stay.

Linda Yang Nina will come to SAD 17 in the fall to teach students the Chinese language and culture. In January, Long will go to China to teach their students English. It is hoped that in the future the exchange will include students and teachers, and that the study of the Chinese language will be permanently incorporated into the program of studies at the high school in Paris.

Eastman credited Blanchard with being the driving force behind the success of the plan.

"He made the connections," Eastman said of Blanchard, who has spent extended stays in China learning its customs and protocol and is now earning a master's degree in Asian studies.

"I thought it was a complete success," said Blanchard of the program that was initiated through the assistance of the Newton North High School in Massachusetts, which established the first international sister school with China. The idea was initiated several years ago after a team of teachers and administrators visited the school in Jin Hua, where a group of local students and visited during a home-stay program.

"They are very committed to sending teachers and students next spring. I think they saw we took this seriously and we're committed," Blanchard said of the Chinese delegation.

For Eastman, who was making his first trip to China, the highlight of his stay was the opportunity to teach a group of Chinese children. Eastman said he walked into an elementary school classroom to hear the children reciting different fruits and vegetables in English as they learned colors. However, they had no word for blue. Eastman showed them a sticker of a Maine blueberry. "I taught them blue," he said with a wide grin.

Eastman said he found students in China to be very focused. In the Zhe-Jiang Normal University, the 3,000 or so students board there six days a week and go home on Sunday. An average classroom has about 50 students, he said.

"Our cultures are worlds apart," said Eastman, who saw the "Americanization" of the city, poverty in the rural areas, icons of China such as the Great Wall and a centuries-old archaeological dig, laborers sweeping the streets with hand-made brooms and even a Kentucky Fried chicken restaurant in a rural area.

"I came away from China realizing how old a culture this is compared to our own," he said.

Eastman said he expects the exchange program will only continue to grow. "It's so important in the future. China is a real force," he said.