Vice president Jing Dunquan announces the start of the 2015camp. [Photo/ CSCLF]

In its sixth year, the Soong Ching Ling International Summer Camp kicked off in Beijing on July 23, 2015, bringing together 360 young people of different backgrounds, culture and languages from 22 countries. With the theme “In China, Be Friends”, the event was designed to build an international exchange platform for global youth to broaden vision and friendship through meaningful activities.

This year the camp features a stronger emphasis on interaction among the campers, and most of the activities involve groups of young people from different countries. In addition, environmental protection is an issue that runs through the event.

The camp started with ice-breaking activities in which the campers played games, exchanged name cards and painted together to learn more about each other. In the National Day event, they also displayed the diverse cultures that they represented.

Campers sign their names on the flag. [Photo/ CSCLF]

At the opening ceremony in the afternoon, a five-minute video looked back on the last five events, followed by a performance of Chinese martial arts and drum-beating. Among those at the opening ceremony were CSCLF Vice Presidents Tang Wensheng and Jing Dunquan.

In his speech, Jing welcomed the global youth on behalf of CSCLF. Young people, he said, are always the main actors of the camp. He hoped that they would have an interesting experience throughout the event.

Then Tang Wensheng presented the camp flag to the Chinese campers and all the volunteers stated that they would protect the environment in everything they do to protect the earth that we call home. At the end of the ceremony, Tang announced the start of the sixth camp.

Just in June, CSCLF organized an international roundtable meeting about the theories and practice in response to climate change, in a showcase of its commitment to the shared destiny of humankind and strengthened international academic interaction.

In addition to participating in the activities in Beijing, the campers visited Chifeng, Inner Mongolia and Nantong, Jiangsu, as well as Shanghai. The event ended on July 29.