Intl students go back to roots at rice festival
(ec.js.edu.cn) Updated：2017-10-17
An overseas student uses traditional farm tools to cut rice at an autumn harvest festival in Tianwang town, Jurong city, Jiangsu province, on Oct 15. [Photo/yangtse.com]
An autumn harvest festival at Tianwang town, Jurong city, Jiangsu province on Oct 15 proved to be an enjoyable party for some 30 overseas students from local universities.
Set in the golden rice field surrounded by beautiful mountains and waters, the festival allowed the foreigners to watch experienced farmers at work harvesting rice, or plunge into rural life and use traditional farming tools to cut, bask and thresh the rice.
A Kazakhstani student from Nanjing Tech University, who was enchanted by the traditional rural activities, even invited her Chinese partners to take more pictures of her and was eager to share the festive moments.
Once worked up with a sweat, the foreigners were served a rural feast of special local dishes, such as long-stewed chicken soup, steamed duck with yams and mandarin fish with garlic sauce.
They also walked down “memory lanes” of many Chinese people and tried out traditional games that were popular in the old days, such as marbles, hoop rolling, cricket catching, and Chinese rubber band skipping.
A Pakistani student named Yang Zekai (Chinese: 杨泽凯), who had pursued studies in China for seven years and now reads at Southeast University in Nanjing, said his trip to Tianwang town was very rewarding.
“Tianwang is a place worth visiting and living in,” he said.
