2015年CRI 百余名比利时学生7月中旬赴中国参加夏令营

 

Around 100 young students from Belgium are preparing to head to China as part of a summer camp program.

Half of them will head to Chongqing, while the other half will spend their time in the province of Shandong.

Eline Alifiens is one of the students preparing to make her way to China.

She says she's been studying Mandarin¹ for the last 3-years.

"I started to get interested in Chinese because of the economy and also I found the Chinese language very interesting and it sounds very fine to speak Chinese. I think its a good opportunity to go with this summer camp. So we could know more about the culture and language and other people there."

The tour is part of the "Chinese Bridge Project" organized by the Confucius Institute.

The program is meant to try to give overseas students a better understanding of both the Chinese language and culture.

Claeys Lieselot, who is an English teacher in Belgium, took part in the program in 2013.

She says her time in Sichuan's capital, Chengdu, opened her eyes to what China has to offer.

"In the province of Sichuan, and there we see some school where we have some of the language lessons in Chinese but also some cultural lessons, paper cutting for instance and tea ceremony. We did Tai Chi and a little bit of Kungfu as well. Some use traditional music that they play some other performances. So it is really really nice to do all of these things."

Tao Hongjian, in charge of the education program at the Chinese embassy² in Belgium, says the program has done a lot to create a better understanding of China in Belgium.

"The 'Chinese Bridge' summer camp program has been developing well in recent years. Many young people have fallen in love with China through their short stays in China. Many of those who have gone on the trip have ended up choosing to study in Chinese universities or take part in university exchange programs. Many of them eventually end up finding a job in China or work back here in Belgium in areas connected to China-Belgium communications."

Chinese Premier³ Li Keqiang is in Brussels to attend this year's China-EU Leaders' Meetings.

He's also due to meet with Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel as part of his time there, with cross-cultural exchanges expected to be one of the highlights of his agenda⁴.

For CRI, I'm Zhao Jianfu.

1 Mandarin   

n.中国官话，国语，满清官吏；adj.华丽辞藻的

参考例句：

• Just over one billion people speak Mandarin as their native tongue.大约有十亿以上的人口以华语为母语。
• Mandarin will be the new official language of the European Union.普通话会变成欧盟新的官方语言。

2 embassy   

n.大使馆，大使及其随员

参考例句：

• Large crowd demonstrated outside the British Embassy.很多群众在英国大使馆外面示威。
• He's a U.S. diplomat assigned to the embassy in London.他是美国驻伦敦大使馆的一名外交官。

3 premier   

adj.首要的；n.总理，首相

参考例句：

• The Irish Premier is paying an official visit to Britain.爱尔兰总理正在对英国进行正式访问。
• He requested that the premier grant him an internview.他要求那位总理接见他一次。

4 agenda   

n.议事日程，记事册

参考例句：

• We now proceed to the next item on the agenda.我们现在着手讨论下一项议题。
• If there is no objection,the agenda is adopted.如果没有意见，议程就通过了。