In a unique gesture ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to India, around 2,000 school students in the southern Indian city of Chennai sat in formation to spell out his name in Chinese characters, Indian news agency Asian News International (ANI) reported on Thursday.

President Xi arrives in Chennai on Friday for the much anticipated second round of informal summit with the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The international airport in Chennai, capital of India's southern Tamil Nadu state, has been spruced up in local traditional decor to receive the Chinese president.

"Security has been heightened at the airport and flags of India and China have been put up around the area. Moreover, the airport is being decked up traditionally with banana leaves, flower garlands, and fruits," ANI reported.

Related story: Ancient Indian town with China ties gears up to host Xi-Modi informal summit

Xi and Modi are scheduled to hold talks in Mamallapuram, about 50 kilometers south of Chennai, on October 11 and 12. It is an ancient coastal town in southern India with historic trade ties with China dating back to 4th century CE. Both the leaders had held their first informal summit in Wuhan, the capital city of central China's Hubei Province, in April 2018.

The informal summit will provide an opportunity for the two leaders to continue their discussions on overarching issues of bilateral, regional and global importance, and exchange views on deepening India-China Closer Development Partnership, India's Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement.

Chinese Ambassador to India Sun Weidong emphasized that people-to-people ties are crucial between the Asian neighbors. "P2P & cultural ties are key to bilateral relations. We achieved a lot in this field, with 1 million mutual visits per year and 2 rounds of High-Level P2P&Cultural Exchanges Mechanism meeting. Let's work for new highlights in culture, education, youth, media and sports exchanges," he tweeted.

Sun also emphasized that "with growing uncertainty in the international situation, China and India should strengthen cooperation on international and regional affairs, just as we once jointly advocated the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, which have become basic norms of international relations."

Earlier on Wednesday, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Luo Zhaohui laid out the significance of the Xi-Modi summit. "The visit will be very important, as we just celebrated the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The upcoming visit will be President Xi Jinping's first overseas trip after the national celebration," he said.

Luo, who was Beijing's ambassador to India from 2016 till May this year when he was elevated to his current position, remarked that the summit will set the tone and direction for the future development of the relationship and provide positive impetus for the whole world.

China and India are both developing countries with emerging markets and populations of over a billion in the world, Luo noted, adding that the two sides working jointly will not only facilitate their national development, but will also beef up the progress of world multi-polarization and economic globalization.

(Cover: Over 2,000 students sit in formation to spell out the Chinese word for "welcome" ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to India at the Everwin School in Kolathur area of Chennai, October 10, 2019. /Photo via ANI)