St. Paul — There has been much talk at the Republican National Convention, being held here this week, about bridging the political divide.

But students from the University of Utah and Shantou University, in China, are trying to cross a cultural gulf as well. They are part of an exchange program that pairs five students from Utah’s Hinckley Institute of Politics and seven from Shantou’s Cheung Kong School of Journalism and Communication to cover the U.S. election.

Beginning last week in Denver, and continuing through Election Day, the group will spend the next three months writing news stories and producing television segments on the American presidential race. The pieces will appear in a dozen Chinese news outlets and in several American publications as well. They also will run on the program’s Web site: campaigncoverage08.org.

To learn more about their experiences at the conventions, see our story today. It also includes coverage of the GOP Youth Convention, held at Concordia University here. And we catch up with a quartet of young Republicans who have been traversing the country in support of Republican candidates and who have been blogging about their experiences at Where Is the Red?.