Between June 27th and July 3rd, the Turkish Confucius Institute at Bogazici University and Chinese corporation Huawei's local branch hosted an "Experience Chinese" summer camp in Istanbul.
The 7-day summer camp attracted 27 little members aged between 9 and 16 from Turkey's capital, Ankara and its largest city, Istanbul. During the week- long period members were able to learn the "Happy Chinese" Chinese course and experience the charms of Chinese kung fu: professional martial arts teachers from China's Shanghai University taught the kids long boxing. In the dining room, Children learnt to make dumplings and use chopsticks. In addition, the children also studied some other traditional Chinese artistic and cultural skills, such as painting and writing with Chinese pen brushes, paper cutting, Chinese knot tying, tea culture, Chinese music, Chinese history, Chinese festivals etc. Through the summer camp children were able to enjoy different cultural experiences.
The Chinese Consulate General in Istanbul also lent active support to the summer camp; Director He Jiangchuan from the Department of Political and Cultural Affairs participated in the opening ceremony and presented Shanghai World Expo souvenirs to camp members. Some Chinese volunteers and Turkish university volunteers also joined in with the organization of the camp; the camp has built up an exchange platform for the teenagers of the two countries.
This year's summer camp is also the Confucius Institute's first profitable attempt to work with a China invested corporation.