Group Photo of Teachers and Students from Both Sides (Photo by Zhang Fengfeng)

ZHANJIANG EVENING June 2: As the pivot city of "The Belt and Road Initiative", Zhanjiang has attracted more and more attention and started to actively integrate into the world. In recent years, economic, cultural and education exchanges between Zhanjiang and overseas countries, especially ASEAN countries, have become more and more frequent.

On May 30, the "2018 Confucius Classroom" Summer Camp of Belarusian State University of Physical Culture (BSUPC) sponsored by Confucius Institute Headquarters (Hanban) officially kicked off in Lingnan Normal University (LNU). 21 Belarusian teachers and students will hold a 10-day experience program of traditional Chinese culture in our school. Huang Wei, Vice Principal of LNU, presented the flag to the Belarusian leading teacher and announced the opening of the camp.

"The students of the summer camp are about to launch a variety of learning activities in beautiful Zhanjiang, which is not only a rare opportunity to learn Chinese, but also a rare opportunity to understand Zhanjiang and the excellent traditional Chinese culture." Lin Li, associate researcher of Zhanjiang Foreign Affairs & Overseas Chinese Affairs Bureau, hopes that students of the "Confucius Classroom" can cherish this opportunity to have a deeper understanding of China and Zhanjiang and become "Friendship Ambassadors" of cultural exchange between Zhanjiang and Belarus.

"‘Confucius Classroom’ is one of the most promising and effective cooperation projects between BSUPC and LNU." According to the Belarusian leading teacher, both sides try to upgrade "Confucius Classroom" to "Confucius Institute"; in the future, the relationship between the two universities will become even closer, which will also open a wider way for the knowledge and cultural values exchange and the establishment of a friendly dialogue partnership between the two sides.

Yang Lin, student representative of the School of Foreign Studies of our university, looks forward to guiding Belarusian classmates to visit the beautiful campus, complete colorful cultural studies, art performances, sports competitions and other activities and experience the distinctive Chinese culture and local customs.

"We look forward to finding new friends and learning more about Chinese culture and Chinese language at LNU." Student representatives from BSUPC gave speeches in Chinese, expressing their ardent expectations for learning.

It is reported that in the next ten days, the Belarusian teachers and students will learn Chinese martial arts, calligraphy, folk music, cooking, tea art and other courses with Chinese traditional cultural characteristics, visit LNU campus and the places of historic figures and cultural heritage of Zhanjiang, and carry out sports exchanges, evening parties, folk customs investigation and other activities.

 

Follow-up Report

On the morning of May 31, a group of nearly 30 people from the "2018 Confucius Classroom" Summer Camp of BSUPC organized by LNU visited the Zhanjiang School of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

Students from Belarus visited the school's Medicine Garden, Osmanthus Garden, Peach Garden and Banyan Tree Garden, which are the important parts of the school's "green culture". These gardens are surrounded by green trees, all kinds of flowers, and birds' chirps all the year round. Guests strolled through the green gardens and admired the variety of traditional Chinese medicine plants. The camp members were deeply impressed by the courteous students of Zhanjiang School of Traditional Chinese Medicine, the clean and beautiful campus, and the rich traditional Chinese medicine culture and traditional Chinese culture. They showed great interest in traditional Chinese medicine. Afterwards, the camp members visited Zhanjiang Museum of Traditional Chinese Medicine, the only museum of its kind in western Guangdong. The rich exhibits and specimens of Chinese herbal medicine provided an eye-opening experience for the guests.

The teachers and students of the school's Rehabilitation Specialty of Traditional Chinese Medicine displayed the appropriate health technology of Traditional Chinese Medicine, which made the foreign students feel very surprised and amazed. Scrapping, massage, moxibustion…The foreign guests were deeply attracted by the magical technical treasures of traditional Chinese medicine.