Cheung Yuk Yu, Faculty of Dentistry

Programme: Jiangsu and Hong Kong Youth Historical and Cultural Summer Camp

Partner Institution: Nanjing University

Period: June 25 - July 1, 2024

It has been an honor to join the Jiangsu and Hong Kong Youth Historical and Cultural Summer Camp hosted by Nanjing University. The week has passed quickly, but it was definitely very fulfilling and rewarding.

We attended lectures given by professors from the Faculty of History, who provided different perspectives on Nanjing, the city renowned for being the ancient capital of six dynasties. We learned about the significance of the Qinhuai River to both the city and its citizens, and the connections between Nanjing and Hong Kong in the last century and many more. However, as the saying goes, ‘It is better to travel ten thousand miles than to read ten thousand books.’ We visited different parts of Nanjing while we were there. We visited the Yuejiang Tower overlooking the Yangtze River, the Jinghai Temple, where the Treaty of Nanking was signed, and the Purple Mountain, which is famous for containing various tombs of historical figures, including Sun Yat-sen and the Hongwu Emperor. The most impressive experience for me personally was our visit to the Xiaoling Mausoleum. I visited it just recently, last December. It was winter back then, and all I saw were white snow, red bricks, bare tree branches and a few tourists in the area. This time, in contrast, the park was lush with greenery, soft drizzle and groups of people, which made my experiences and feelings completely different from last time.

The last two days of the trip were spent in the city of Jiangyin, a city of which, before this, most of us had never heard. Although our time there was short, we gained a brief understanding of its history and stories through visits to the Jiangyin Museum, Pushi Village and the town of Changjing. The most memorable experience was making Suzhou-style mooncakes, which were wrapped in flaky pastry and filled with rich fillings, coming with a variety of flavors and can be either sweet or savory. They were very different from the typical mooncakes that we have in the Guangzhou region, which are classically represented by the traditional double-yolk white lotus paste mooncakes.

This study tour not only deepened my understanding of Nanjing and Jiangyin but also allowed me to meet and interact with teachers and students from different universities, majors, and ages. It was overall a very precious and unforgettable experience.