The Beijing Kite Flying festival is an annual event celebrated during the spring. This year the event was arranged at the Beijing Garden Expo Park. It was a multinational gathering with kite flyers coming in from multiple countries. The specialty of the event was the participation of students from different academic institutes of China.
A group of 40 students from University of Chinese Academy of Science also joined this year’s festival. The group included students from Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, India, Pakistan and Kenya. The UCAS provided students an opportunity to experience the Chinese style of kite making and flying. All the students were given material for decorating and making their own kites before trying to fly them during the festival. It was a new experience for the students especially those from Central Asian Countries as kite flying is not traditionally famous there. It was nice to see the students showing up with beautifully painted kites. The professional kite flyers helped the students in learning to fly their kites.
Later in the day, the students were taken to the Lavender Gardens where professional kite flyers from different countries demonstrated their skills and expertise in kite flying. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the day full of colorful kites, pleasant weather, beautiful locations and soothing music.
The students were grateful to the UCAS for providing them a chance for cross cultural learning and emphasized on arrangement of such events on a more regular and larger scale. Such events allow the students to know more about the Chinese culture and traditions besides providing them with a platform for communicating with students of different nationalities and research backgrounds.
