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Celebrating 10th anniversary of HKSAR : HKU Teams up with Mainland Universities to Climb Yu Zhu Feng

14 Jun 2007

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To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the HKSAR, the University of Hong Kong (HKU) expedition team will team up with its counterparts from Tsing Hua University and Beijing University to climb up Yu Zhu Feng, at 6,178.6 metres, in Qinghai, China on 1st July 2007.

A Pledge Ceremony cum Press Conference of the expedition to Yu Zhu Feng was held today (14 June 2007) at HKU. Apart from cheering the expedition team before they set off the journey, we would like to take this opportunity to introduce to the general public the adventure education and the related programmes offered by IHP, HKU.

Under the Adventure Education Programme of the Institute of Human Performance (IHP) of HKU, a team of 22 students and graduates has been formed to take on the challenge of climbing Yu Zhu Feng this July. Through this expedition, participants can enjoy the pleasure of mountaineering and experience the primitive living on mountains, and at the same time can also have a valuable opportunity to learn how to cope with the adversity brought along by harsh weather and environments, which definitely will put participants' mental and physical fitness to an extreme test.

Fully integrated with outdoors activities, Adventure Education aims at enhancing our self-understanding, self-confidence and ability to overcome life's difficulties for a breakthrough in our personal growth and development. Moreover, adventure education can also give us a deeper awareness and understanding of environmental protection as well as wildlife preservation. Adventure education indeed aptly fits in to the philosophy of General Education, which promotes one's whole-person development for nowaday's ever-changing society.

Since 1997 IHP has been carrying out various adverture education programmes. Among them, there have been a number of mountaineering activities held in different places in the region which include Mt. Qomolangma and Mt. Qizi in Tibet, Mt. Qilian, Yushan and Sheishan in Taiwan as well as other places in Japan and Nepal. To prepare for the upcoming expedition to Yu Zhu Feng, team members not only have to take stringent training in mountaineering, rock-climbing, camping and physical fitness, but also have to finish three group research projects on Tibetan Culture, History of Mountaineering in China and Environmental Conservation. After months of intensive training and hard work, the team will set off their journey soon. IHP would like to thank the sponsors, namely the Chinese General Chamber of Commerce, the major sponsor of the expedition, and Ozark which supplys the team with full-set of mountaineering gears, for their generous supports that make this expedition possible.

Photo caption: Two students of the HKU expedition team performed abseiling from the top of Knowles Building in the pledge ceremony today.