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Annual British Students’ Study Visit to China (Summer/Autumn Camps)
In partnership with the Office of Chinese Language International Council (Hanban), IOE Confucius Institute for Schools has organised annual English students’ study visits to China since 2007. The annual programme grows year on year and has gained a widely-recognised reputation for offering invaluable opportunities for secondary school students to learn Chinese and about China through an intensive two-week course. To date, a total of over 2,000 students and accompanying teachers from 82 schools have benefited from this programme. Students and accompanying teachers pay for their international airfares, visas and programme management/administration cost; while all in China cost including accommodation and food, transport and travel, language lessons and necessary tourism are generously funded by Hanban.
This programme is also known as Hanyu Qiao (Chinese Bridge) Summer Camps, and usually takes place in July for two weeks. Due to the Summer Olympics in Beijing and London, we organized Autumn Camps in 2008 and 2012.
The China programme:
All participants spend around 12 days in China, splitting their time between Beijing and one other province/city.
During the two week visit, participants spend approximately 3 days visiting places of historical and cultural interest in Beijing, such as the Forbidden City and the Great Wall as well as visiting Hanban Headquarters. They also fly from Beijing to their host cities where they spend the majority of their time in host institutions. In previous years students and teachers have visited Chongqing, Henan, Hunan, Heilongjiang, Fujian, Jiangsu, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanghai, Sichuan and Zhejiang.
During their time in the provinces/cities, participants will take part in:
- at least 20 hours of Chinese tuition
- traditional Chinese cultural activities
- visits to local historical and cultural places of interest
- activities with local Chinese students
- home visits
- a Hanban YCT language test
Students and teachers have provided very positive feedback after the visits:
A student, from St. George’s School in Harpenden, took part in the 2011 camps and he said:
“The Mandarin lessons were really excellent, I learnt a lot, also the home visit was fascinating as well as doing cultural visits with our Chinese friends, as my friend taught me a lot of cultural information and history.”
A student, from Impington school on the 2012 Autumn Camps said:
‘The trip was a great experience and an amazing insight into Chinese life. I hope to return one day.’
A participating teacher from Argoed High School on the 2012 Autumn Camps said:
‘“The students were delighted by their experience and view it as a wonderful opportunity. They were very happy with the hotels, food, lessons and visits. They gained a good insight into China and several would like to return. They are all continuing their Chinese studies now.”
Contact details:
If you are interested in finding out any future visits, please contact us at chinesenetworks@ioe.ac.uk.
To read about the 2012 Autumn Camps click here.
To read the sample programmes in the previous year click the links below.
A province programme 2012 (PDF)
To read about the sample risk assessment in the previous year click the link below.
