Students of the of Botswana University Enjoys a Wonderful Winter Camp in Shanghai

SHNU: A Winter Camp co-organized by SHNU and the University of Botswana (UB) was successfully held from December 9th to 23rd. 17 students from the Confucius Institute (CI) of UB came to China for the first time and spent two weeks to experience and study Chinese language and culture.

The opening ceremony of the winter camp was held in the SHNU International Student Center on December 10th. SHNU President Assistant Mao Xuncheng warmly welcomed the arrival of Botswanan students. He briefly introduced the university, hoping that they could know more about China and its culture during their stay.

The winter camp included various courses about Chinese culture, such as handicrafts, tea art, martial arts, Chinese cuisine, folk music and Chinese calligraphy.

The camp also organized a visit to No.4 Middle School Attached to Shanghai Normal University. Students of the winter camp toured around the school, sat in on the courses and had face-to-face interactions and exchanges with Chinese students.

Colorful extra-curricular activities were also organized to let the foreign students enjoy folk music, watch acrobatics and go shopping. To fully feel the charm of China’s great progress since the reform and opening up, students also visited a lot of places of interest such as Zhujiajiao, Yuyuan Garden, Tianzifang, Shanghai Museum, Shanghai City-planning Museum, Shanghai World Financial Center, Nanjing Road and the Bund.
Members of the winter camp are mostly adults who aged between 21 and 57 and who have learned Chinese for over 200 hours in CI, 4 of them having passed HSK (Level 2). During the winter camp, students not only learned Chinese, but also further experienced Chinese culture and realized China’s great changes, which in turn increased their interest and confidence to learn Chinese.
 
On the commencement of the winter camp on December 20th, head of the SHNU International Exchanges Office congratulated these students and encouraged them to continue to learn Chinese after returning home and granted each a certificate. All the students regarded it as a memorable experience to take part in the winter camp which gave them a fresh new impression of China. They hoped to come to China again in the future and some even expressed the wish to study and work in China.