As spring brought warm breezes, friends arrived from afar. A sixty-seven-member delegation of faculty and students from Howest University of Applied Sciences in West Flanders, Belgium, visited Zhejiang Gongshang University to launch a week-long “Discover China” cultural exchange program. The visit is the largest in scale to date—since the two universities established their partnership and jointly founded a Confucius Institute in 2012, this marks the biggest exchange in terms of participating faculty and students.
On the morning of April 8, a welcome ceremony for the delegation was held in the lecture hall on the first floor of the library. Pei Bei, Director of the Office of International Exchange and Cooperation and Dean of the School of International Education, Cheng Yuanping, Deputy Director of the Office of International Exchange and Cooperation, and Xu Zhenghan, Vice Dean of the School of International Education, together with relevant staff, attended the ceremony.
Asked about their first impressions of China, the Belgian faculty and students instantly offered words like “huge,” “beautiful,” and “delicious food.” Pei Bei extended a warm welcome to the Belgian delegation and offered detailed guidance on practical matters for their stay, encouraging them to view China’s development with a rational eye and to experience firsthand the safety, convenience, and friendliness of Hangzhou. She also introduced ZJSU’s various degree and exchange programs, expressing the hope that Belgian students would pursue further studies in China and, through immersive experience, understand Chinese culture, witness Zhejiang’s development, and deepen friendship between Chinese and Belgian youth. Zhang Yuanxun then led the delegation on a tour of the university history museum and the campus, drawing admiration for ZJSU’s modern facilities and environment. The group also dined at the campus canteen, sampling Chinese cuisine and trying mobile payment to get a taste of modern Chinese life.
The study tour offers a rich and varied itinerary. The delegation will split into groups for a range of immersive activities: visiting Zhejiang Chinese Medical University to experience the appeal of traditional Chinese medicine; exploring West Lake and local museums to read Hangzhou’s historical and cultural heritage; traveling to Yiwu, the starting point of the “Yiwu-Xinjiang-Europe” freight train, to learn about international logistics corridors and trade cooperation; and visiting the National Archives of Publications and Hanggang Park to witness cultural preservation and urban renewal. Faculty and students from the tourism and architecture departments will also travel to Songyang for field research on rural architecture and cultural tourism, gaining a full picture of Zhejiang’s vibrant development.
Since the partnership began in 2012, ZJSU and Howest have achieved remarkable results: their jointly built Confucius Institute was recognized as a global model, and they co-founded Belgium’s first undergraduate program in Chinese business. Sustained collaboration in faculty and student exchange, academic research, and cultural outreach has made the partnership a model of China-Belgium university cooperation. This visit further strengthens the friendship between the two institutions and broadens the scope of cooperation, and it also stands as a significant milestone in the twenty-sixth anniversary of the friendship between Zhejiang Province and the Province of West Flanders in Belgium. This journey to China, we believe, will become a precious experience for Belgian students in understanding a real, multi-dimensional, and comprehensive China, injecting new momentum into China-Belgium educational and cultural exchange and opening a new chapter of friendship and cooperation between the two provinces and two universities.
