Nearly 1,000 college students from the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong Saturday began their 20-day summer camp program organized by China's leading research body, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).
During the next 20 days, the students from 54 colleges and universities nationwide, including five from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, will visit several institutes and exchange ideas with some of the country's outstanding scientists.
Their itinerary includes the Beijing Observatory, Institute of High Energy Physics and the Space Science Research Center under CAS.
As part of the program, similar summer camp activities were also held by CAS institutes in Shanghai, east China, and Xi'an city, capital of Shaanxi province, northwest China.
The students gathered on Saturday in the capital will also visit the Great Wall, the Forbidden City and other Beijing cultural heritage sites.
Zhao Yong, secretary of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League of China (CYLC), said the program was designed to enable the students to experience the spirit of science and scientific trends, which was good for the country and the students' development in the long run.
The program is sponsored by CYLC in cooperation with CAS and the All-China Students' Federation.
(Xinhua News Agency July 20, 2002)
