From 15-30 July 2008, 33 Young Climate Change Awareness Ambassadors from mainland China and Hong Kong, together with 4 International Climate Champions from India, travelled around China by train, visiting environmentally responsible schemes and organisations.
The Green Journey was an opportunity for us to reach more young people around the country and encourage them to get involved with combating global warming. Four people represented India and I was one of them.
We started off from Beijing. We were first briefed about our work and our program. We were then told of the Beijing Olympics and how China has modelled them into the ultimate Green Olympics. Green Olympics in itself is a brilliant idea not only because it is helping people save energy but more importantly because by branding the Olympics as ‘green’ Olympics, the message has found its audience automatically, and that too loud and clear. We were briefed about the Olympics by the head of the Olympics committee, Madam Lu. We then visited the Beijing planetarium for our first public interaction program. We planned on an activity we will carry out throughout our trip. We asked the public to write their opinions on how to tackle climate change on leaves which we gave them and then put them on a tree chart which we carried all along the journey. This activity was our first opportunity to interact with the public and we were delighted to see warm and welcoming the people were. We had planned four different activities highlighting efficient energy use. While everyone was very enthusiastic about the activities and took active part in each on of them, we distributed pencils and other gifts.
We visited The Chong Ming Dongtan National Nature Reserve, which is a wet land area and home to and endangered and fragile ecosystem and then watched a short environmental film. We then went to Nanjing road and continued with the Public awareness campaign with the tree. The public was even more enthusiastic here, in all we collected about 300 leaved in there and made lots of friends.
We went to the British Council and had a press conference there. We then went to Haishi Eco Parkland planted trees on the park which is a sustainable castle shaped resort on a hillside built by the Chongqing green volunteers’ league. We ended the day with Dinner that a Chinese special Cuisine called Hotpot. This was the only cuisine in china was a little bit spicy and unlike the plain Chinese food.
The next day, we went to the Chongqing Demonstrative Eco farmland and Chongqing wetland. We saw evidences of Climate change in the wetland and how it has destroyed its fragile ecosystem. We then went to the Man Jiang Hong floating restaurant and enjoyed a stunning view of downtown Chongqing
We went to Li Keng domestic waste incineration facility which is the only facility of its kind in Guangzhou that incinerates waste for electricity generation and its technological application and operation mechanism matches European standard. After that we went to the Guangzhou institute of Geography and learnt about the impact of climate change in this region. After that we went to the Tianzi dock which has seen unprecedented sea level rise. We carried forward the tree campaign in here also. We ended a day with a walk along the Pearl River.
Next day we visited the Guanyin Mountain Tree Museum which shows the variation of temperature of Chongqing over different periods of time. We went on a study tour with a professor in the same park.
We went to Ark Eden for “Education for Sustainable Development” activity day on Lantau Island, where there is a sustainable eco – house in the hills built by a British lady who practices low carbon living coupled with economically sustainable living.
Next day we met with representatives from the Hong Kong Observatory, HKO in Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon. After that we went for a guided tour of the two companies supplying power to Hong Kong and saw their initiative in this field. After that we met Prof Johnny Chan, Director of the Guy Carpenter Asia-Pacific Climate Impact Centre at City University of Hong Kong. The last event was a concluding Press conference at the British Council and then we all went to the airport while the Chinese young ambassadors went to the Train station.
Right throughout the trip we realized that we do not need to wait for the government to step in every time, rather we as individuals can do a lot more. We were able to understand the Chinese culture, its people and their lives. Though on some fronts it is very different from us, we still share a lot of common traits and cultures. People on both sides of the border are warm hearted and welcoming. We both have similar cultures yet we do not know each other so well. This trip was a revelation for all of us because we got to know the real china right from its heart and not just the shallow touristic view of the People’s Republic.
- Aditya Kumar - XII C - Sanskriti School
