Hundreds of students and local residents lined up outside a university sports hall in the city of Chengdu to welcome Macron, some waiting hours for the president's arrival.

"I'm very happy and honoured that he has come to Chengdu and our Sichuan University," 21-year old material sciences student Ye Maoxuan said, describing the French leader as "charming".

With a wall of students' cellphone cameras fixed on the French head of state, the buzz around Macron's visit quickly spread via social media.

He had already caused a stir after he was filmed on a surprise jog in a local park on Friday morning.

"We saw the videos online. He looks like he is still very lean and very healthy," said 20-year-old student Su Chang, standing behind temporary barriers erected to contain the waiting crowd.

When Macron arrived at around 3:00 pm (0700 GMT), students jostled for a chance to shake his hand in rapturous scenes that echoed his 2023 visit to a university campus in the Chinese city of Guangzhou.

Macron arrived in Chengdu on Thursday evening after talks with President Xi Jinping in Beijing that canvassed relations between the two governments and as the French leader sought to shore up Chinese support for a path to a ceasefire in Ukraine.

- Panda diplomacy -

Closer to home, Sichuan University students said they hoped Macron's visit would bring stronger academic ties.

"I think we should carry out some cooperative projects between our universities and France," Ye, the material sciences student, said as he waited to enter the venue via a security check.

"China and France have advantages in different fields, so we can learn from each other."

While the president spent the afternoon on campus, his wife Brigitte Macron paid a visit to Chengdu's giant panda research base.

The two nations signed an agreement to bring two pandas from China to France by 2027, replacing two that were recently returned to Chengdu from a French zoo.

"Sending the pandas to France is a display of the very friendly interactions between the Chinese and French people," clinical medicine student Gu Xingyu said, ahead of Macron's arrival.

"We really hope... it can promote the friendship between our two countries."