The 10th Confucius and Mencius Field Study Summer Program Launched

On July 14th, the opening ceremony of 2010 Shandong-Taiwan Youth Exchange Season and the 10th Confucius and Mencius Field Study Summer Program was held on the central campus. Zhuang Weiping, the Deputy Director-General of the Taiwan Affairs Office of Shandong Province, and Zhang Yun, the Vice-President of Shandong University, made opening remarks at the ceremony.

In his remark, Zhuang said that the summer program has been held five times since 2005. The program was centered on the communication of young people between Shandong and Taiwan. Till now there have been 5,000 students from Taiwan visited Shandong Province, and more than 2,000 students going to Taiwan. The young people were encouraged to make full use of this platform, enhancing better understanding, strengthening ties, fostering mutual trust, accumulating consensus and promoting the peaceful development of relations. In his speech, Zhang reviewed the summer programs in the past ten years and affirmed the mutual support and promotion between the students. He introduced the long history of Shandong Province the students and encouraged them to explore the history, to search for wisdom from the rich cultural heritage and to develop their competence. Zhuo Zhonghong, a teacher in Tamkang University, and the student representatives of Taiwan University and Shandong University also delivered their remarks at the ceremony.

The ceremony was chaired by Tong Guangwu, the Director of the Office for Hong Kong, Macao & Taiwan Affairs of SDU. Representatives from Shandong Provincial Education Department, the Tourism Administration of Shandong Province, Shandong Communist Youth League, the Association of Senior High Schools of Shandong Province, the Taiwan Affairs Office of Ji nan, and Shandong Air Lines also attended the activity. Teachers and students from Taiwan University, Cheng Kung University, Tsing Hua University, Chengchi University, and Tamkang University from Taiwan, and Wuhan University, Xiamen University, Sun Yat-Sen University, Tongji University, Sichuan University, and Xi an Jiantong University from the mainland joined this ceremony.

The Confucius and Mencius Field Study Summer Program was organized by the Office for Hong Kong, Macao & Taiwan Affairs of Shandong University. Since the beginning in 2000, more than 400 teachers and students from Taiwan have been invited. It has become an important project for student communication, and has played a positive role in promoting academic exchange and cooperation between Shandong University and its partner universities in Taiwan. The 11-day program was co-hosted by the School of History and Culture, Shandong University. During their stay in Shandong, the members visited Jinan, Tai an, Qufu and Weifang and experienced the traditional Chinese culture and customs of Shandong Province through a series of lectures, seminars, cultural excursions, and social gatherings.

By Liu feifei