Students from the flag-raising teams of schools in Hong Kong said their recent five-day exchange trip to Beijing has deepened their understanding of national development, and have expressed a strong commitment to serving the country through study.
Their remarks were made during a sharing session at Kowloon Technical School on Friday afternoon.
From Sept 18 to 22, the "Salute to the National Flag" Hong Kong and Macao Youth Flag-Raising Teams' Beijing Visit Delegation, comprising about 1,200 students from schools and universities in the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions, visited Beijing for exchanges.
They visited multiple cultural landmarks and schools in the national capital, and watched the flag-raising ceremony at the Tian’anmen Square. On Sept 21, they were received by Ding Xuexiang, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and vice premier of the State Council, at the Great Hall of the People.
Friday’s session was attended by about 250 students who had returned from the trip.
Addressing the event, Chief Secretary for Administration Eric Chan Kwok-ki, who led the delegation, said the visit allowed the students to experience firsthand the solemnity and grandeur of the national flag, and that he hoped they would spread the fruits of their visit more widely through the sharing session.
“Saluting the national flag is saluting the nation”, Chan said.
Patriotic education has always been a top priority for the Hong Kong SAR government, and both the city’s first five-year plan (2026-30) and the latest Policy Address, released last month, highlight patriotic education as a key focus, said Chan.
He said he hoped Friday’s session would allow more young people to understand the significance of the national flag and feel the nation’s care and support for young people.
Zhang Beihan and Wayne Kuang, student representatives from Pui Kiu Middle School who attended the trip, said that Ding's words — “learning about the national flag, safeguarding the national flag, and winning glory for the national flag” — left a deep impression on them.
Cheung Hoi-ching, a Form 4 student from Pui Kiu Middle School, said the exchange with a secondary school in Beijing made the deepest impression on her. “Although the environments were different, we had many common topics to talk about and built a deep friendship”, Cheung said.
A pair of twin sisters, Wong Sze-man and Wong Sze-fei, from the Education University of Hong Kong said that the visit to the Great Hall of the People remains fresh in their memories.
Throughout the visit, they came to realize that the nation's strength was not easily achieved, but is the result of the efforts of generations of predecessors.
They said that this generation of young Hong Kong people are both the beneficiaries of the "one country, two systems" principle and the successors to building the nation, and that the future of Hong Kong and the country needs to be written by them.
Students from Fukien Secondary School Affiliated School, Aiden Iu and Noah Lai, said the visit let them learn about the motherland's new technologies, and the solemnity of the flag raising ceremony.
“It’s so impressive, seeing the magnificent flag-raising ceremony (at Tian’anmen Square),” they said.
On Wednesday, a similar sharing session was held at Hou Kong Middle School in Macao, where students and teachers who were on the trip shared their experiences and reflections.
Contact the writer at atlashao@chinadailyhk.com
