Michelle Obama dips a brush in an ink pod today as she tries writing Chinese characters as Peng Liyuan, wife of Chinese President Xi Jinping, left, watches her during their visit to a Chinese traditional calligraphy class.

BEIJING — U.S. first lady Michelle Obama met with excited students who were building robots and tried her hand at Chinese calligraphy today during a tour of a Beijing high school.

Mrs. Obama was joined by Peng Liyuan, the wife of Chinese President Xi Jinping, on the first day of a visit to China that aides say she hopes to use to promote education and people-to-people exchanges.

Accompanied by her two daughters and her mother, Mrs. Obama toured the Second High School Attached to Beijing Normal University in central Beijing. The elite school has 33 American exchange students, and some of its Chinese students aspire to study in the United States.

In a calligraphy class set up for Mrs. Obama’s visit, the first lady practiced writing the Chinese character for “eternal” under the guidance of 16-year-old student Lu Yuhong.

“I’m nervous,” Mrs. Obama said. “Don’t be nervous,” Peng replied in English.

Lu said he too was nervous, as well as “very excited.”

“But the first lady was so amicable. She was very approachable,” Lu said.

Peng also picked up the brush and wrote a four-character Chinese aphorism on virtues before presenting it to Mrs. Obama as a gift.

In another class, students showed the first lady small robots they had built, moving the devices with remote controls. One knee-high robot climbed over a pile of yellow plastic bricks.

“All the students that she met with, the Chinese students, spoke English and were able to explain to her in very fluent English what they were doing,” said Tina Tchen, Mrs. Obama’s chief of staff. “And I think she found that very impressive, because we know it’s something that we struggle with in the United States, about having our kids be able to be fluent in a second language by the time they get to high school.”