SCU Mainland Chinese Freshmen Receive Warm Welcome in Special Camp

Tens of Mainland Chinese freshmen enjoyed a two-day camp in Chinshan on September 15^th and 16^th as SCU’s Mainland Chinese Student Association prepared an array of fun activities featuring a theme of a classical Chinese novel “The Journey to The West.” The Chinese students all felt warmth and a sense of belonging through this annual event which helped them get a smooth start in their life away from home.

 In the morning of the first day, after everyone arrived at Chinshan Youth Activity Center, located in the beautiful northeast coast of Taiwan, senior students of the Mainland Chinese Student Association started the camp with a singing dance of “Mountain patrol Asked by My Lord.” Later on, the freshmen drew their own team flags and played “ice-breaking” games to get to know each other faster and better.

In the afternoon came the highly anticipated multiple-stage role-play games, in which the freshmen paid full attention listening to the game rules and worked hard to pass each stage. After a cooling and splashy round of water balloon throwing, the evening was filled with singing, dancing and laughter as all the students circled around a campfire to end the first day.

The second day of the camp began with another round of fun games, which the freshmen enjoyed even more as they had known better or made friends with each other. In the wrap-up presentation in the afternoon, the hilarious “blind judges” and “acting masters” had brought down the house. In the end, all the freshmen wrote down their gratitude for or thoughts about others on the paper patch on their backs to mark a warm ending for the camp.

“Although this welcome camp has ended, it also started these Mainland Chinese students’ college life.” Young as it is with its five-year history, SCU’s Mainland Chinese Student Association has been striving to be a home or shelter for Mainland Chinese students who study here far away from home. It hopes to involve more and more students from Mainland China to contribute to the Association and to offer more help and warmth to other Mainland Chinese students living and studying in Soochow University.