THE plight of bile bears in China was firmly off the agenda during a visit by the Chinese ambassador to the south Cotswolds this week.

Zha Pei Xin, the Chinese ambassador to Britain, visited Katharine Lady Berkeley's School at Wotton-under-Edge on Friday at the invitation of Cotswold MP Geoffrey Clifton-Brown.

KLB is the only school in the county, and only one of a few in the country, to offer Chinese as a syllabus subject.

His Excellency, accompanied by his wife, Lady Zhang Xiaokang, and Mr Clifton-Brown, were given an hour-long tour of the school by head boy Adam Tiley and head girl Grace Jackson.

The tour took in the school's art department, technology department and language laboratory, where the ambassador joined students for a Chinese lesson.

Lady Zhang Xiaokang presented the department with books and CDs of Chinese culture and architecture to help students with their work.

His Excellency said: "Chinese is widely spoken. There are 1.3 billion people in China and there are 50 million overseas and it is one of the recognised languages of the United Nations.

"When you learn a new language it opens the window to the world. Because the Chinese economy is booming it is one of the modern business languages. Once you have English and Chinese you can travel throughout the world."

Headteacher Andrew Harris said: "We are conscious that our pupils are going into a world where the Chinese economy is going to have an enormous influence.

"To have pupils who can speak Chinese going into that world is going to give them an advantage.

"If you can engage somebody in their own language you are in a stronger position to do business and I think we have to educate people for 2020. Hopefully the students will benefit from the visit."

When a reporter from the Western Daily Press, which is campaigning against the inhumane conditions in which bile bears in China are kept, asked the ambassador to comment on the subject his excellency was prevented by Mr Harris from answering.

When the reporter persisted in his line of questioning he was asked to leave the building.

Following his visit to the school the Ambassador visited Cirencester Agricultural College and Cotswold District Council before an engagement in Fairford.