fixing issue 277
diff --git a/asterix-app/src/test/resources/runtimets/queries/string/string-to-codepoint2/string-to-codepoint2.1.ddl.aql b/asterix-app/src/test/resources/runtimets/queries/string/string-to-codepoint2/string-to-codepoint2.1.ddl.aql
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..754ea81
--- /dev/null
+++ b/asterix-app/src/test/resources/runtimets/queries/string/string-to-codepoint2/string-to-codepoint2.1.ddl.aql
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+drop dataverse test if exists;
+create dataverse test;
+
diff --git a/asterix-app/src/test/resources/runtimets/queries/string/string-to-codepoint2/string-to-codepoint2.2.update.aql b/asterix-app/src/test/resources/runtimets/queries/string/string-to-codepoint2/string-to-codepoint2.2.update.aql
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e69de29
--- /dev/null
+++ b/asterix-app/src/test/resources/runtimets/queries/string/string-to-codepoint2/string-to-codepoint2.2.update.aql
diff --git a/asterix-app/src/test/resources/runtimets/queries/string/string-to-codepoint2/string-to-codepoint2.3.query.aql b/asterix-app/src/test/resources/runtimets/queries/string/string-to-codepoint2/string-to-codepoint2.3.query.aql
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..88f0dfa
--- /dev/null
+++ b/asterix-app/src/test/resources/runtimets/queries/string/string-to-codepoint2/string-to-codepoint2.3.query.aql
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+use dataverse test;
+
+let $x := "欢迎"
+let $c := string-to-codepoint($x)
+
+return {"result1": $c}
diff --git a/asterix-app/src/test/resources/runtimets/results/string/string-to-codepoint2/string-to-codepoint2.1.adm b/asterix-app/src/test/resources/runtimets/results/string/string-to-codepoint2/string-to-codepoint2.1.adm
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..eacdb11
--- /dev/null
+++ b/asterix-app/src/test/resources/runtimets/results/string/string-to-codepoint2/string-to-codepoint2.1.adm
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+{ "result1": [ 27426, 36814 ] }
diff --git a/asterix-app/src/test/resources/runtimets/testsuite.xml b/asterix-app/src/test/resources/runtimets/testsuite.xml
index 0c43526..7ff782a 100644
--- a/asterix-app/src/test/resources/runtimets/testsuite.xml
+++ b/asterix-app/src/test/resources/runtimets/testsuite.xml
@@ -3489,6 +3489,11 @@
       </compilation-unit>
     </test-case>
     <test-case FilePath="string">
+      <compilation-unit name="string-to-codepoint2">
+        <output-dir compare="Text">string-to-codepoint2</output-dir>
+      </compilation-unit>
+    </test-case>
+    <test-case FilePath="string">
       <compilation-unit name="strlen02">
         <output-dir compare="Text">strlen02</output-dir>
       </compilation-unit>
diff --git a/asterix-aql/pom.xml b/asterix-aql/pom.xml
index 249299c..f8c652f 100644
--- a/asterix-aql/pom.xml
+++ b/asterix-aql/pom.xml
@@ -30,6 +30,7 @@
 						</goals>
 						<configuration>
 							<isStatic>false</isStatic>
+							<javaUnicodeEscape>true</javaUnicodeEscape>
 						</configuration>
 					</execution>
 					<execution>