Apart from presentations by celebrated physicists and tours to renowned laboratories, USTC, as the host of this camp, has also organized various other activities for FPISC attendees, like Chinese classes, calligraphy,  Tea Tao and Pottery art which are typically Chinese, so that students are able to get a panorama of China.

On the very first day, campers were given a racy Chinese course. To begin with, they were taught how to say ‘teacher’ or ‘laoshi’. Then, Ms. Chen, their lecturer, moved to some of the basic greetings and pleasantries, such as ‘Ni Hao’ or ‘Hello’, ‘Xiexie’ or ‘Thank you’, etc. By practicing with warm-hearted volunteers, students made remarkable progress. Subsequently, to help them have a better understanding of Chinese culture, Ms. Chen displayed representative Chinese food and scenery that are so exquisite that students seemed to be led into a wonderland. For most of the campers, they have never ever been so close to all these Chinese elements, which must have made an extensive influence and profound impression on their life.

Then the next day, campers were taken to learn calligraphy, something unique in China and we take pride in. As one of the hardest arts for Chinese, it is unimaginable how difficult it could be to the students who have barely written any characters or used a brush as a pen. However, stimulated by immense interest, they enjoyed the learning very much and devoted relentless efforts to it. Simple as the characters were, their writings have largely exceeded our expectation.

Afterwards, campers embraced another form of classical Chinese arts—Tea tao. With cane chairs, light yellowish light, screen paintings and other symbolic Chinese accessories, the Tea tao classroom calmed students down the moment they entered it. They were treated with a cup of tea first. Then Mr. Zhou unfolded its history in China before them, containing its origin, traditional usage, development within and abroad, etc. Additionally, the tea ware was involved in the speech, the evolution from pottery to copper, porcelain and so on, which serves as the epitome of social and economic advancement. What’s more, Mr. Zhou has 3 containers in distinct dynasties and materials exhibited in the tea room, which aroused great curiosity among attendees and paved the way for the following Pottery art lecture where they would be guided how to produce it themselves.

Without air-conditioner but clay in hand, campers were bound to explore a brand new world in the Pottery art class. During the process of production, Mr. Zhou deepened their knowledge and imprinted it on their mind.
Via the aforementioned programs, campers depicted this trip as ‘eye-opening’ refreshing and updating the image of USTC and China.　 　　

(ZHU Xiaocao,Photo by CEN Dan, School of Physical Sciences)