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Study Tour: “Chinese Bridge” Competitors Climbed up the “Big Corn Building”, Visited Zhengzhou Garden Expo, Tasted Local Food and Appreciated Light Show

On October 30, the competitors of the 12th Chinese Bridge-Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreign Secondary School Students were continuing their study tour in Zhengzhou. They went to experience the Chinese garden culture at Zhengzhou Garden Expo Park, taste the unique frozen food in Sanquan Food Co., Ltd. and feel the beauty of day and night of the city at Millennium Royal Plaza and the Ruyi Lake.

1. Fascinated by Garden Cultural Feast and Sceneries at Each Corner

In the golden autumn winds, the elegant and beautiful Zhengzhou Garden Expo Park embraced a group of special visitors – part of the competitors of the 12th Chinese Bridge-Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreign Secondary School Students came here to experience the garden culture.

The city gardens assemble the art of gardening in China and other countries and the vivid and well-informed explanations for each of these gardens enabled the competitors to have experienced the long history and culture of different cities.

Upon entering the Zhengzhou Garden Expo Park, one will have colourful plants, antique buildings, and meandering creeks leap to the eyes. Among these eye-catchers, the first thing attracted the visitors is the beautiful autumn view of the Garden Expo Park. Walking ahead, they entered different garden areas, where they were shocked by China’s profound history and culture as well as the multi-types of gardening.

In the garden area titled “Wonderful Taiyuan”, the fine Shanxi brick carving art amazed the competitors; in the Beijing Garden, the grand atmosphere of the royal garden style made everyone linger on; in the Suzhou Garden, the classical and graceful architecture allowed the young students to appreciate the joy of moving several steps making different view. Everyone walked happily in views composed of pavilions and ponds, listening carefully to the guide’s explanation and taking photos to memorize the wonderful moments.

In Jingyuan, Fang Yihui, a contestant from Myanmar, saw a portrait of his “Idol” Confucius. He respectfully said to Confucius: “I have worshipped Confucius since I was a child. I’ve read Lunyu (The Analects of Confucius), Shi (The Book of Songs), Shu (The Book of History), Li (The Book of Rites), Yue (The Book of Music), Yi (The Book of Changes), and Chun Qiu (Spring and Autumn Annals),” he said. “I am so excited that I see my Idol here.” He said that learning Chinese allowed him to see a broader world, and that he was thankful for the chance that the “Chinese Bridge” contest had given to broaden his horizons. In the future, he said he would continue to work hard to improve his Chinese and gain a deeper understanding of Chinese culture.

“The architecture here is quite distinctive, and it feels like we are living in ancient times,” Luo Di, a contestant from Azerbaijan, said when he was marvelling at the superb architectural technology in China. “The tour guide explained the ancient Chinese architectural knowledge. The Chinese are really intelligent. I am very curious about how the ancient Chinese built these seemingly complex houses.”

The competitors ended their journey of the garden culture experience in continual laughter. With the real experience in the location, they had a deeper understanding of China’s history, culture and architectural features. Everyone expressed that this was a worthwhile trip.

2. Standing on Top of the Big Corn Building with the Yellow River in the North and the Songshan Mountain in the West

At 3 pm on the 30th, the competitors climbed up to the top floor of the Big Corn Building, also named Millennium Royal Plaza in Zhengdong New District, which is 280 metres high, to have a bird’s eye view of the whole city. Standing on this highest building in the city, every other building is just at a much lower level.

At the top of the Millennium Royal Plaza building, the competitors took photos from different angles of the city that they were increasingly familiar with. They looked down from the top of the city to see that high buildings on the shore of the Ruyi Lake rise from the ground, and that the traffic was endless on the Jinshui Road overpass. When a kite was flying in the sky, they saw that this modernized city also gave a sense of leisure.

“The design of Millennium Royal Plaza is inspired by the Songyue Temple Tower on the Songshan Mountain in Henan, which is 1,400 years old and is the oldest of its kind in China,” introduced by the staff of the building. The exterior of the Millennium Royal Plaza building integrates the goodwill that bamboo bears in Chinese culture. In Zhengzhou specifically, it embodies the vitality and spirit of Zhengdong New District. However, Zhengzhou citizens prefer to call it the “Big Corn”, and this vivid and lovely name was immediately known to the competitors from different countries.

Cuban contestant, Elizabeth, quietly looked down at the Ruyi Lake. Feeling the refreshing autumn wind blowing in from the wind, she praised Zhengzhou as a nice city with every street clean and well facilitated. She felt pitiful that she had little time to visit so many places around the city.

“Even a stone may bear a culture and many seemingly simple things have a special history. I like people and food here,” Elizabeth said that her visit in Zhengzhou made her “have more reasons to love China.”

3. Thumbing up Chinese Food After Visiting Sanquan Food Co., Ltd.

At Sanquan Food Co., Ltd., the competitors were provided a chance to visit the production lines of jiaozi (dumplings) and tangyuan (glutinous rice balls) with great interest. They visited the process including raw material selection, cleaning, processing, automatic forming, quick freezing and packaging.

The clean and tidy workshop, the neatly-equipped workers and the orderly operation enabled the competitors to fully understand the entire production lines and corporate and brand culture of Sanquan as well as the development of Chinese frozen food.

Sanquan Food had carefully prepared dozens of foods with different characteristics. The visitors were so interested in the delicious food that some of them spoke in Chinese, “Is it a treat? Dumplings, dumplings, spring rolls, fried dough sticks. We have everything!” After trying these food, the competitors shared their food experiences and praised the food as “delicious” together.

“The jiaozi and zongzi (pyramid rice wrapped in bamboo leaves) here are very good. I love Chinese food,” Lulu, a contestant from the United Arab Emirates, said. Chinese food was not so strange to her as she had once visited some cities in China on another occasion. She praised highly on hot pot and dandanmian, a kind of noodles in Sichuan. She added new courses on her good Chinese food after visiting Henan.

4. Admiring Light Show in Zhengdong New District

As the night curtain fell, the lights in Zhengdong New District were glittering. The competitors gathered at the shore of the Ruyi Lake. The 280-meter-high “Big Corn” building was shining there in a golden shape in the night.

At around 8 pm, a beautiful light show was switched on in Zhengdong New District. The images shifted between the flying dragon, the peonies, the Longmen Grottoes, and the skyscraping ancient tower, etc., adding more vitality to the lake side. Competitors were not the only ones who enjoyed this grand view. Citizens were also there taking photos of the fantastic moment.  

From noon to night, these competitors from all over the world were feeling the different of day and night of Zhengzhou, and were updating their understanding of China through comparison in their own hearts.

 

Copyright by Zhengzhou Municipal Tourism Administration