Some 200 university students of Chinese origin from over 22 countries and regions bid farewell to each other at a closing ceremony in Hong Kong Tuesday after a 17-day root-finding tour to the Chinese mainland.
Welcoming the return of the delegates of the fourth China Synergy Program for Outstanding Youth (CSP) to Hong Kong, deputy delegation leader and President of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University Poon Chung-kwong said, "With a better understanding and knowledge of modern China, I hope the participants can appreciate her history and culture more, and hence develop a sense of belonging to our motherland."
As China is gaining prominence in the international political arena, Poon urged the delegates to capitalize on the new changes of the fastest growing economy in Asia in the new century.
In their concluding speech, the delegates expressed their excitement at witnessing the fast development of the Chinese mainland and their pride of being a Chinese.
The cultural exchange itinerary started in Hong Kong before touring around Dongguan, Guangzhou, Xi'an, Beijing and Shanghai. The students visited foreign and Taiwan enterprises in Dongguan, Ancestral Temple of the Chen Clan in Guangzhou, the Shaanxi Provincial History Museum in Xi'an, the Great Wall and the Palace Museum in Beijing, and the Shanghai Pudong New Area, as well as Peking University, Tsinghua University, Fudan University and Shanghai Jiaotong University.
The tour climaxed on July 17 when the delegation were received by Chinese Vice-Premier Qian Qichen at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.
The CSP was initiated in 1999 by a fervent group of community leaders in Hong Kong with a partial funding from the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust.
(Xinhua News Agency July 23, 2002)
