Each spring semester first-year students visit several government organizations, research institutions, enterprises, and rural sites in order to gain a solid and applied understanding of contemporary China.

This year’s activities included cultural events on Gong Fu, Taichi, and the Dragon Boat Festival, a cultural tour of Lama Temple, a trip to the Marco Polo bridge and the nearby Museum of the War of Chinese People’s Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, a trip to Hanshiqiao natural reserve, and a visit to the state-owned enterprise Datang Telecom.

To mark the end of the semester, CCSP students and alumni took part in a three-day fieldtrip to Henan and Hebei provinces. The first destination of the trip was Anyang, one of the eight ancient capitals of China and cradle of Chinese characters and oracle bone inscriptions.

Here our students, accompanied by Professors Liu Xinguang and Cui Shoujun, took part in a historical roller-coaster that started with a visit to the Yinxu Ruins of the Shang Dynasty and ended with a visit to Yuan Shikai’s mausoleum, first President of China after the Provisional Government of January 1912 – October 1913 and self-proclaimed Emperor of the short-lived Empire of China (1915-16).

During the second part of the trip in Baoding, the CCSP group went to Mancheng district, in the eastern foothills of the Taihang Mountains where the Han dynasty tombs of prince Liu Sheng and his wife Dou Wan are located.

The trip was also an occasion to take China’s famous high-speed train and understand how being included in the “gaotie” railway network has had a great impact in the development of many Chinese minor cities, for which Anyang is a striking example.