The first Chinese mainland study tour for Hong Kong senior secondary students departs for Guangzhou and Shenzhen at West Kowloon Station on Monday. Seeing off the delegation led by Secretary for Education Christine Choi Yuk-lin (front row, seventh from left), Chief Secretary for Administration Eric Chan Kwok-ki (front row, sixth from right) said he hopes the students will see the vast opportunities on offer, brought about by the country’s development, and be determined to contribute to Hong Kong and the country. (PHOTO / HKSAR GOVERNMENT)

The first group of Hong Kong high schools’ cross-boundary study tours under the Citizenship and Social Development curriculum embarked on a two-day trip to Guangzhou and Shenzhen on Monday, marking the beginning of the mass exchange activity arranged for Hong Kong teenagers to gain first-hand experience of the nation’s development. 

Teachers participating in the project said Monday’s visit was impressive and fruitful, and hope the exchange tours will provide eye-opening opportunities for the city’s youth to learn more about the mainland’s progress following the three years of the COVID-19 pandemic, the abundant opportunities ahead of them, and their future development paths.

The tour will also visit the Dongjiang Guerrilla Command Memorial Museum in Shenzhen, which records local heroes’ commendable contributions during the anti-Japanese war, to serve some students’ interests in the nation’s modern history

Around 250 students and teachers from NT Heung Yee Kuk Yuen Long District Secondary School and Hon Wah College joined the trip, which was led by Secretary for Education Christine Choi Yuk-lin.

According to the Education Bureau’s plan, more study tours to the Chinese mainland covering over 20 themes will kick off later. By the end of August, over 40,000 Hong Kong high school students will have participated in the tours.

Arriving in Guangzhou by high-speed train, the delegation visited Guangzhou ZhiXin High School on Monday morning and attended classes at the school. The members also experienced the charm of historical districts Yong Qing Fang and Chen Clan Ancestral Hall in the afternoon.

On Tuesday, they will visit leading intelligent speech company iFlyTek in Guangzhou and the Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong Youth Innovation and Entrepreneur Hub in Shenzhen.

Kwan Wing-bun, principal of Hon Wah College, said that as the first mainland trip since cross-border travel fully resumed, the exchange tour has been welcomed by Hong Kong students and teachers alike, who have been able to gain a lot by joining classes at the ZhiXin High School, a prestigious middle school in Guangzhou.

Hong Kong students from NT Heung Yee Kuk Yuen Long District Secondary School and Hon Wah College (wearing light blue shirts and dark sweaters) join their peers from Guangzhou ZhiXin High School to learn more about Chinese traditional culture through a variety of art classes. (PARKER ZHENG / CHINA DAILY)

The delegation attended various classes at the school, covering science and technology, geography and music. The geography class introduced the formation of the Pearl River Delta, which helped students better understand the origins of the Guangdong-Hong Kong Macao Greater Bay Area. Students were excited to have the fresh experience of attending classes with their mainland peers, Kwan said.

Kwan also observed that the atmosphere in the classes was quite active, as teachers adopted multimedia teaching methods and arranged many group discussions to strengthen interactions.

He hoped that the two-day visit to the mainland would help cultivate Hong Kong students’ interests of the latest economic and cultural developments on the mainland, and further deepen the exchanges between Hong Kong and mainland youths.

Members of the delegation join students of ZhiXin High School in a woodwork class, in Guangzhou, April 3, 2023. (PHOTO / HKSAR GOVERNMENT)

Lee Wai-hung, assistant principal of Fukien Secondary School (Siu Sai Wan) will lead about 90 Secondary Five students to visit Shenzhen on April 28. In early March, he and some other Hong Kong educators joined another delegation led by Choi to inspect the routes for the exchange tours.

He said students showed great interest in the mainland’s science and technology development, so the school has selected two technology-related sites as part of the upcoming tour, including a science museum and an innovative technology enterprise. 

The tour will also visit the Dongjiang Guerrilla Command Memorial Museum in Shenzhen, which records local heroes’ commendable contributions during the anti-Japanese war, to serve some students’ interests in the nation’s modern history.

Hong Kong students from NT Heung Yee Kuk Yuen Long District Secondary School and Hon Wah College (wearing light blue shirts and dark sweaters) join their peers from Guangzhou ZhiXin High School to learn more about Chinese traditional culture through a variety of art classes. (PARKER ZHENG / CHINA DAILY)

Lee said the exchange will offer far more than just sightseeing. The students are required to choose research topics, such as smart cities or the internet of things, before the trip; and they must collect at least 15 items of information related to their research topics during the Easter holidays. After the trip, they must also finish a detailed report on the topic.

Lee hopes the long-awaited study tours outside Hong Kong will broaden the youngsters’ horizons and beef up their understanding of the nation’s development progress, especially new trends in the Greater Bay Area.

He also hopes the experience will help them better explore opportunities in the Greater Bay Area, prompting them to study, work and even settle in mainland cities of the cluster, which also have promising prospects.

Hong Kong students from NT Heung Yee Kuk Yuen Long District Secondary School and Hon Wah College (wearing light blue shirts and dark sweaters) join their peers from Guangzhou ZhiXin High School to learn more about Chinese traditional culture through a variety of art classes. (PARKER ZHENG / CHINA DAILY)

Replacing Liberal Studies, the Citizenship and Social Development curriculum became a compulsory course for Secondary Four to Secondary Six students from September, 2021. It aims to help students build a solid knowledge base and develop a sense of national identity through studying important topics relating to Hong Kong, the nation and the contemporary world. 

With such aims, it is a requirement that students visit the mainland at least once within the three-year senior secondary education period. In February, the Education Bureau offered 22 routes, all short trips within Guangdong province, for Secondary Four and Secondary Five students, with the latter enjoying a priority, to participate in from April to August.

All expenses for the trips will be covered by the Education Bureau. After the tours, the students need to submit an essay of about 1,000 words on how the GBA can help with young people’s development.