Participants in the 20th Youth Summer Camp visited the National Teams Training Center, an athletic training complex located in Beijing Sport University, on July 4 (PENG JIAWEI)

On the morning of July 4, as pouring rain washed away the summer heat that had roasted Beijing for days, some 200 college students from over 40 universities in Taiwan arrived at Beijing Sport University (BSU), the first stop of their four-day visit to the capital.

Their trip to Beijing marks the beginning of the 20th Youth Summer Camp, an annual program organized by the All-China Federation of Taiwan Compatriots (ACFTC), a Beijing-based organization of Taiwan compatriots residing on the Chinese mainland.

Since 2004, more than 20,000 youth from Taiwan have participated in the program, averaging approximately 1,000 every year, visiting cities across the mainland and acquainting themselves with local cultures and traditions. This year’s summer camp is the first offline Youth Summer Camp since the removal of COVID-related travel restrictions earlier this year.

The excursion to BSU on July 4 included an ice-breaker session and visits to the university’s ice arena and the National Teams Training Center, where athletes from the Chinese national team were training for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. During their visit, the youth heard speeches by Olympic gold medalists in diving and weightlifting, Li Na, and Zheng Guojun, who recounted their Olympic glories as well as the struggles and adversities they had experienced along the way. Their stories were received with multiple rounds of applause.

In the afternoon, the group visited Minzu University of China (MUC), the only university in China where faculty and students represent all 56 of the country’s ethnic groups. Participants learned about the rich diversity of Chinese cultures at a graduate art show, which features a collection of art works by the university’s Class of 2023, an exhibition of traditional costumes of Chinese ethnic minorities, and a lecture on the history of Beijing, which has been home to people of multiple ethnic groups for centuries.

The day concluded with an evening gala, where the participants, volunteers from BSU and MUC, and a dynamic cohort of youth from Taiwan who now live and work on the mainland came together to deliver a broad variety of performances including dances, music martial arts, and rhythmic gymnastics.

Dressed in traditional costumes of China’s ethnic minorities, students from Minzu University of China performed at the 20th Youth Summer Camp’s opening ceremony, which was held at the university on the evening of July 4 (PENG JIAWEI) 

“Today’s campus tour gives me an opportunity to get to know some of the student volunteers. Hopefully, these connections will grow into long-lasting friendships that are able to transcend boundaries and differences,” Weng Xijun, a third-year Ph.D. student in political science from the Chinese Culture University in Taiwan, told Beijing Review.

Having majored in history during his undergraduate years, Weng has long cherished the dream of visiting the capital’s rich assortment of historical landmarks, which he had previously only read about in textbooks and literature. From July 5 to 7, Weng and other participants visited some of the capital’s most famous cultural sites, including the Imperial Palace, the Badaling Great Wall, the Summer Palace, and the National Museum of China.

The conclusion of these activities, however, does not mark the end of the summer camp. From July through August, related events will be held in 28 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities on the mainland, the Hong Kong and Macao Special Administrative Regions, and some overseas regions.

“The camp allowed youngsters from Taiwan to see what life on the mainland is like. The truth speaks for itself,” Yang Yizhou, Vice Chairman of the ACFTC, said. “Only through in-person exchanges can we truly overcome stereotypes and misunderstanding, strike up deeper human connection, and build candid connectivity between Taiwan and the mainland.”

Copyedited by G.P. Wilson

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