To implement the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping's instruction on making excellent Chinese traditional culture popular around the world, the School of International Education (SIE) arranged for 26 international students from 13 countries to celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival at the Guangzhou Shennong Caotang Museum on June 7.
The students visited the Traditional Chinese Medicine Museum of the Guangzhou Shennong Caotang Museum, learned about the legends of "Shennong Tasted Hundreds of Herbs" and "He tu Luo shu", explored the Chinese herbal medicine garden which boasted 1,000 kinds of herbs, and listened to the introduction on the effects and characteristics of Chinese herbal medicines. When visiting the Memorial Hall of Tu Youyou, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, the students expressed their admiration and gratitude to Tu Youyou for her remarkable contribution of the discovery of artemisinin which can significantly reduce the mortality rate of malaria, marveling at her contributions to human beings.
The international students then experienced the custom of the Dragon Boat Festival. They learned how to make rice dumplings and mosquito repellent sachets, and experienced the plant printing and dyeing. Some of them also experienced the moxibustion therapy which has been included in the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity of UNESCO.
It was coincident that they met Chen Xinzi, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yang Zhenhai, the successor of Inner Canon of Huangdi, and Li Wenhai, vice president of CP Group during the visit. They praised and affirmed the efforts made by the school in spreading the culture of traditional Chinese medicine to the world, guided the experience activities for the students, and took a group photo with the students.
The students said that this kind of activity is meaningful, offering them an opportunity to celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival in a special way, learn about the origin and development of the Chinese culture, and understand the Chinese philosophy. They have benefited a lot from the activity and expect to participate in more culture experience activities.
