Representatives of the Royal Norwegian Embassy awarded 2 December 2005 148 scholarships to students at the Yunnan Nationalities University. 114 female and 34 male students received King Harald V's Scholarships. King Harald and Queen Sonja instituted King Harald V's Scholarship Programme after their visit to China in 1997 and this is the sixth year of the programme. Their visit to Yunnan made a deep impression on Their Majesties. They were so grateful for the warm reception they received that the King presented a gift to Yunnan in the form of a Scholarship Programme to the Yunnan Nationalities University. The Scholarship guidelines state that priority shall be given to students belonging to ethnic minorities and to female students.
The student Li Meiting describe the importance of the scholarship in the following way: "It is meant to be an encouragement – as well as a handshake – for ethnic minority students towards completing studies. Since then the guidelines and notions of the Scholarship have become the great inspiration and encouragement for ethnic minority students of this university to work hard and make progress (...) We have taken this scholarship as a rewarding program, academically as well as socially and culturally."