SHANGHAI — More than 150 school students and teachers from the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region have returned from a five-day immersive technology experience in Shanghai, which offered them a remarkable view of China’s transport and engineering achievements.
Sponsored by the Greater Bay Area Homeland Youth Community Foundation, the delegation flew to Shanghai aboard a specially chartered C919, China’s domestically developed commercial jet, on June 23.
In a rare privilege, they became the first group of Hong Kong secondary students to tour the historic Jiangnan Shipyard, known as “China’s First Factory”, and a primary manufacturing base for aircraft carriers, naval vessels, and advanced commercial ships.
Christy Shek, a student from Kwai Chung Methodist College, described the visit as breathtaking. “The deck alone was as large as four football pitches,” she said. “Looking up at these massive ships from below felt truly spectacular.”
At the COMAC Shanghai Aircraft Design and Research Institute, students viewed a full-scale model of the yet-to-be-released C929 passenger jet.
Aydan Lau from Elegantia College was impressed. “The biggest surprise was seeing the C929, which has not yet been launched,” he said. “We even got to step inside the cockpit.”
The group also visited the ZEEKR Intelligent Factory, a 100 percent automated “dark factory” with 703 robots, and the China BeiDou Industrial Technology Innovation Park, where they learned about the hydrogen maser clock with precision of one second over 10 million years.
“In the past, I could only watch aerospace launches on TV,” Lau said, adding: “Visiting the BeiDou park and thinking about the story of Lai Ka-ying, Hong Kong’s first female payload specialist, made me feel that joining the aerospace industry is not an unreachable dream.”
At the departure ceremony, Albert Chuang, vice chairman of the All China Youth Federation and a member of the HKSAR Legislative Council, said the tour aligns with the country’s 15th Five-Year Plan to position the nation as a global leader in technology, transport, and manufacturing.
The itinerary also included visits to the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum, where students explored clean energy topics, and cultural landmarks such as Tianzifang, the Bund and the Memorial Hall of the First National Congress of the Communist Party of China.
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Hearly Lam from Po Leung Kuk No 1 W. H. Cheung College reflected on the energy exhibition: “We have to find a way to coexist with nature and strike a balance between energy growth and conservation.”
“Through this tour, I’ve recognized the country’s technological progress. My dream now is to join one of the cutting-edge industries I visited,” said Lau.
