The public media link China with Asian and African countries, improving their communications and understandings, said Asian and African journalists attending a training program Tuesday in Beijing.

The program offered an opportunity to know the true China, Hussein Abdullahi Hassan, a Kenya News Agency correspondent, told Xinhua.

Influenced by Western media, there exist many negative perceptions about China in Africa, Hassan said. "The African people only see Chinese people doing business and constructing roads, but they don't know much more about China."

For most of the 11 journalists, who are attending a five-day training program organized by the World Media Summit (WMS) secretariat, it is their first visit to China.

"Before I came here I knew little about China. But now when I write (reports) about China, I will feel part of China, because I've been here and that will always be in my mind," Hassan said.

He said the media was "an important sector" in bridging China and Africa and enhancing mutual understanding between the two peoples.

Emmanuel Amas, a reporter from Tanzania Broadcasting Corporation, said he would be "a good ambassador" between China and Tanzania by making television programs about China after he returned to his country.

The journalists said they were surprised to see the skyscrapers and the fast pace of city life in the Chinese capital, but they were more impressed by an open and confident China.

"The Chinese people are very cooperative and they are very happy," Amas said.