MOUNTAIN GROVE, Mo. – The chemistry lab microscopes at Missouri State University-West Plains’ campus in Mountain Grove received a heavy-duty workout for a couple of hours Dec. 8 when 35 students from China took an up-close look at grapevine buds provided by Missouri State’s nearby Fruit Experiment Station.

The students are from an agricultural region in north-central China – Ningxia province – and are studying grape growing, wine making and wine marketing at Missouri State University so they can complete their education back home and work in China’s expanding wine industry.

Missouri State’s Fruit Experiment Station in Mountain Grove is well known internationally for its grape and wine research and education program. A leadership center in Ningxia is sending college students to Missouri State to learn the science and business of wine production.

Lu Adams, coordinator of Missouri State-West Plains’ Mountain Grove campus, said she is always glad to cooperate with the staff at the Missouri State research facility. “We were happy to welcome the international students to our campus,” she said. “We enjoyed meeting them.”

One of the students, wine tourism major Jing Yue, said using the microscope enabled her to see “the structure of the bud.”

Wine making major Mingke Liu said she got a clear view of the components of the bud, adding, “It’s very interesting.”

Marilyn Odneal, clinical instructor and vineyard manager at the research station, said the students from China will have made at least three trips to study at the Mountain Grove facility before the school year ends. She also will work with students in a class on grape nomenclature and anatomy at Missouri State’s Springfield campus.

“A lot of these students are in marketing,” she said. “They are interested in how to market to their population.”

The Chinese students are spending much of their time at the Springfield campus taking intensive English language training, as well as agri-business and ag science classes, including animal science, forage, and American viticulture and enology. The program also serves as a cultural exchange.

Ningxia province, a sunny region with loosely-packed soil and good drainage, is conducive to grape growing and wine production, and a push is on to expand that industry. Wine industry publications note than Ningxia wines are doing well in wine-tasting competitions. The Chinese are becoming major consumers of wine.

Ningxia province’s population is more than six million. The capital, Yinchuan, population two million, is about 750 miles west of Beijing. The Yellow River arcs through the province, which covers 25,000 square miles. Missouri encompasses 69,000 square miles and has six million people living within its borders.