"Every person is a new door to a different world."
- from movie "Six Degrees of Seperation"

This expression might be but a movie quote but, during the ten days duration of the international Summer Camp at Beijing Foreign Studies University, participants and organizers of the event alike were able to understand the deeper meaning of this sentence.

The camp took place from July 16th till July 25th and, with a total of 131 students from ten different countries participating, it provided the children not only with a unique chance to experience Chinese culture but also gave them an opportunity for making international friendships with students from all across the globe.

The overall atmosphere at the campsite was very communicative since the majority of the activities were designed to bring the different nationalities together and let them learn about each other in a very easy-going and playful manner. The guiding teachers of Beijing Foreign Studies University largely contributed to the success of this progress. Their open-minded integrative and associational way of leading through the camp activities let the students feel what a wonderful contribution cross-cultural understanding can make to our every-day life. For that reason it is no wonder that, in the eyes of the students, the guiding staff of Beijing Foreign Studies University became friends rather than teachers.

At the same time the Chinese cultural program offered a great chance for sightseeing trips to such world-famous places as the Great Wall, the Forbidden City or the Bird’s Nest of the Olympic Summer Games in 2008. The students visibly rejoiced in seeing all those places with their own eyes.

After those long sightseeing trips the little explorers were able to replenish their energies with the culinary delicacies of the Chinese cuisine. And of course, the world-famous Beijing Roast Duck simply had to be on the menu.

Sports activities like a basketball competition, volleyball and soccer matches as well as suspense-packed badminton play-offs made the inter-cultural encounters at the camp even more fun-filled.

Another very interesting feature of the program was the calligraphy, scissor-cutting and Chinese language workshops which conveyed the charm of ancient Chinese culture to the students.

In the end, one can easily imagine how sad everyone was to have to leave their newly-made friends. However, the encounters at the summer camp opened not only one but a whole lot of doors into many different cultures. For that reason it becomes clear that the participants strongly hope to meet each other again in the near future and to continue this international exchange.

All in all, we want to express our great thanks to everyone involved in the success of the event and we hope that other institutions all over the world take the summer camp of Beijing Foreign Studies University as a sample start-up in order to further international dialogue, understanding and tolerance amongst youths.

We hope to keep up this bond of friendship and are already looking forward to our next stay in Beijing.