On April 19th, teachers and students of the Department of International Relations came together for this year’s departmental Spring Trip. The destination this semester was Qinglong Gorge, a picturesque scenic area Northwest of Beijing with mountains, lakes, an impressive dam as well as a stretch of the Great Wall.
Organized by members of the Student Committee, the trip’s participants were a sizeable number of students from the Department’s undergraduate, postgraduate, and doctoral programs, both Chinese and English, as well as several staff and faculty, including Professor Zhang Lihua，Professor Sun Xuefeng and Professor Tang Xiaoyang
The trip commenced in the early morning hours of Saturday, when participants met on the Tsinghua University Campus to board the bus destined for Huairou, an estimated 80km journey. On the bus, the Student Committee provided everyone with breakfast snacks and refreshments and the tour guide made necessary preparations for getting the entrance tickets.
Having arrived at the Qinglong Gorge area, teachers and students arranged a group photo at the entrance gate, with mountains and the great wall in the background. Despite overcast, the weather was comfortable for a day in the outdoors. After making sure everyone knew when and where the planned lunch would take place, people started splitting up into smaller groups and strolling along the river leading towards the great dam. At this point some groups decided to hike up the mountain to the Great Wall on one of the paths leading there from the dam, while others chose to take part in some of the amusement facilities, such as bungee jumping or zip-lining across the dam.
When it was time for lunch, everyone was relatively exhausted be it from accomplishing the unexpectedly long hike up or down to the peak of the mountain range or from the exhilarating experience in mid-air over the dam. Lunch was set up family-style with big tables, which allowed students to get to know their peers from other programs while enjoying the great Chinese food. After everyone was finished, a meeting time back at the parking lot was set to allow people to slowly make their way back, passing by bamboo rafts, bumper boats and a bow-and-arrow shooting range.
The return journey back to Beijing went smoothly and teachers and students were greeted by sunny weather. All in all it was a immensely enjoyable trip for everyone and hopefully the next department outing will be just as great a success.
