The Millennium Study Tour, sponsored by the Li Ka-shing Foundation with a donation of HK$10 million, has taken off smoothly. Under the scheme, 1,000 of Hong Kong’s brightest students will travel in small groups to visit high-tech and environmental protection facilities in 14 major cities around the world. Tours to the US, Japan, Singapore, Canada, and Australia are already underway. During their visit to Beijing, the 120 students and teachers in the Beijing tour group met with Chinese Vice Premier Li Lanqing in the Great Hall of the People. Before returning to Hong Kong, they also toured Beijing Oriental Plaza, Asia’s largest commercial complex and one of the greenest developments in Beijing.
According to a Li Ka-shing Foundation spokesman, the aim of the Tour is to give the students a chance to learn from their travel experiences. Oriental Plaza is Asia’s largest commercial project in Asia, and the students have a great deal to learn from its development process. More importantly, the students have the opportunity to see how this commercial complex makes use of a highly advanced telecommunications infrastructure and environmentally friendly facilities.
A spokesman for Oriental Plaza said, Oriental Plaza features comprehensive facilities and has integrated a number of green concepts and high-tech facilities in its design and operation that serve the needs of tenants and Beijing citizens alike.
The students also had the opportunity to visit famous cultural and historical sites in Beijing such as Yuanmingyuan, the Summer Palace, the Great Wall, the Ming Tombs, and the Museum of Aeronautics. They also visited a modern agricultural development area as well as two of China’s most prestigious institutions-Peking University and Tsinghua University. Mr. Xu Zhi-hong, President of Peking University, Mrs. Katherine Hung, a director of the Li Ka-shing Foundation, and four students from Hong Kong and Peking University, planted a tree on the Peking University campus to commemorate the occasion.