Camp Quality staff, companions lead a delegation of 20 senior campers on a goodwill cultural exchange camp to “ Ying Tak” mountain region in rural China on Friday, 27th July to Sunday 29th July. The aim of this camp was to enrich our camper’s knowledge of rural china and to raise their awareness of the poverty faced by these people in this part of China.

It was a bright and early start for everyone last Friday, a group of 40 campers and companions gathered at our Kowloon Tong at 6.30am for our long bus journey to Ying Tak. We eventually reached the main town of Ying Tak called, “Kowloon Town” in the late afternoon. It was a beautiful sunny day and temperatures rose to nearly 40 degrees Celsius here! After finishing a late lunch, our first stop was a visit to a local primary school in the area.

The Tuen Kit Primary School is considered to be one of the best in the Ying Tak area, however, in comparison to schools in Hong Kong, the standard and quality was still far inferior to those in HK and other big cities. Lighting in the classroom relied mainly on natural sunlight, and most of the chairs and desks in the school were of poor quality and pretty badly dented. The local students however, were very excited in showing our campers and companion their classrooms, telling us about their school life and taking photos with us. Both parties got on extremely well and our campers behaved very friendly towards the local school children, curious to learn more about them and their schooling.

Next day, it was another early start to visit some local village homes; we were all reminded to have a big breakfast since we would be doing quite a lot of walking to reach the village homes. A quick stop was made to the local supermarket to stock up some souvenirs for the villagers. The bus dropped us off at the bottom of a hill and from there, the only way to reach the homes were by foot! Our campers came well prepared for the trip with their back- bag fully loaded with water and snacks. On the way, we could see the local farmers harvesting, processing the grain and bamboo shoot. The farmers were all incredibly nice and friendly and stopped to chat to the children. It took us over an hour and a half to reach the village on foot. The campers and companions were then split into teams of 4-5 people in one group. The children representing each family in the local village led each of our group into their home. It was evident to us all that these families are genuinely poorer than those in the nearby town; however, they seemed to lead a very happy and fulfilled life.

The villagers were all incredibly hospitable and warm people. The family welcomed us with special congee cooked with brown rice and grounded sweet corn and some families also gave us sweet potato to try also. Lunch consisted of mainly simple dishes prepared with bean curd, bamboo shoot, sweet potato and perhaps some eggs. We were told that the children living here were taught to be independent from a very early age, most of them seemed extremely capable, they could cook and do housework from the age of 12 –1 3years old. The kids here were very excited in sharing their stories with us, they brought us around their houses, showed us around the farm, and how they cultivate their harvest, where the sweet potato and sweet corn were grown…. Finally, after spending more than half a day there, we had to leave the village at late afternoon for our trek back down the hill and then back to the hostel for the night. Today has been a very exhausting but memorable and worthwhile experience for all.

Sunday morning saw us get up at 7:15am. We had another tight schedule today. After finishing breakfast, we made our visit to another primary school. The condition of this school is a lot worse compared to the one we visited in the first day. There was a big leakage problem on the roof. We were told that the student at this particular school couldn’t attend their lesson whenever the weather is poor. After spending some quality time with the children there and learning about their education, culture and living conditions, we had to start preparing for our long journey back to HK.

It has definitely been an inspiring, humbling and rewarding experience for everyone who attended this three-day camping trip. Our campers have benefited tremendously from this cultural exchange trip. They were all impressed by the local people’s attitudes to hardship in the rural areas and had learnt to be appreciative of the many privileges that they enjoyed in HK. It has been a great learning experience for everyone!