Experience China: 2012 Beijing Summer Camp for BC Secondary Students

2012 Beijing International Education Exchange: July 21 – 30

BCCIE’s partner Beijing International Education Exchange (BIEE), affiliated with the Beijing Municipal Education Commission is again delighted to announce the invitation of secondary students from across British Columbia to the 2012 Beijing International Student Summer Camp. On behalf of BIEE, we invite all BC school districts and schools (both public and independent) to send fifty secondary students between the ages of 14 to 18, to participate in the program taking place from July 21 – 30, 2012 in Beijing, China.

All in-country costs for our students will be covered by the hosts, BIEE, and the international arm of the Beijing Municipal Education Commission. Program fees required from each student will include air fare, visitor’s visa, and medical/travel insurance, which should total no more than $1500 per person.  The cost of accommodation, meals, transportation, and local activities will be covered by BIEE, and students are also encouraged to bring spare cash for personal use or emergency situations.

We encourage districts and schools to promote this program and advise you to use whatever criteria you deem advisable to select students and nominate them to us. We are asking districts to nominate students to the program, who will be accepted on a first-come first-served basis.  Please note that nomination does not automatically assume acceptance into the program.

Please note that in the past some districts have covered the fees for their participating students.

Once you have nominated students, please contact Ms. Robin Garcha at rgarcha@bccie.bc.ca by May 1, 2012 with all of the following fields below to gather student information.

School Information

Once we have identified the fifty students we will notify you all again that the program is closed and we will then engage directly with the lucky fifty students in terms of the formal application process and other details.

The group of BC students will also need to be accompanied by two BC teacher chaperones, under the same financial terms, and we will ask districts who nominate three or more students to the program to also identify a teacher chaperone.

More information on the summer camp program can be found at: www.biee.bjedu.cn/summercamp/index.html.
To review pictures and video of last summer event, please refer to: www.biee.bjedu.cn/subject/detail/293.html.

Over one thousand students from over 20 countries will participate in the Summer Camp, which highlights Chinese language and culture activities.  Participants will be guided through classroom and cultural settings throughout Beijing, with field trips, cultural performances, cooking demonstrations and many other activities including:

• Basic Mandarin and Chinese Culture Lesson
• Chinese Traditional Handcrafts such as Chinese knot, Chinese painting, clay and dough figurines
• Kung Fu demonstration and lessons
• Famous historic and cultural sites tour with visits to the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace, the National Stadium

The host BIEE is a non-profit organization affiliated to Beijing Municipal Education Commission, which would be the equivalent to BC’s provincial Ministry of Education.

While in Beijing, BIEE has arranged for all students and chaperones to stay in the local student dormitory.  In principle, four students will share one room and two teachers will share one room. Students are expected to stay in the assigned dormitory through the whole trip. No special arrangements can be made under normal circumstances.