The second annual Dunhuang Youth Internship Program has come to an end. The Program was organised by the Home Affairs Bureau, in conjunction with Youth Square, and fully supported by the Dunhuang Academy. Sixteen internship positions were offered to tertiary education students in Hong Kong. The six-week program offers candidates the opportunity to learn about the history and culture of the Dunhuang region, before becoming tour guides, developing their communication and organisational skills.
This year, 16 interns from different universities in Hong Kong attended the graduation ceremony at Dunhuang Academy, sharing their experiences. In addition, Mr Zhang Xiantang, Vice President of Dunhuang Academy; Mrs Cherry Tse Ling Kit-ching, Permanent Secretary for Home Affairs of HKSAR; and Ms Doris Luey Sisi, Executive Director of Youth Square, were also in attendance.
For those unaware, Dunhuang is a small city in the north-west of China with a population of less than 200,000. However, its importance is down to the strategic location it occupies, its archaeological value, and tourism potential.
Geographically, Dunhaung was a major stop on the Silk Road and is close to the Mogao Caves. It also controls the entrance to the narrow Hexi Corridor leading to Xi’an and Luoyang. The site is currently part of an ongoing archaeological project, as well as The International Dunhuang Project (IDP), which has lead to increasing tourism in the area.
IDP is an international collaboration to make information and images of all manuscripts, paintings, textiles and artefacts from Dunhuang and archaeological sites of the Eastern Silk Road freely available on the Internet, and to encourage their use through educational and research programmes.
The internship program encourages interns to engage in field work on their communication skills through presentations and guiding tourists. They also work together as a group on a creative project to promote Dunhuang. They learn from professional guides on how to better introduce the facts and details about places of interest to tourists and develop themselves into Mogao Caves guides. This is the second year of the program but is set to continue long-term on an annual basis.
The Youth Square organisation is located in Chai Wan and is managed and operated by New World Facilities Management Company Limited on a non-profit making basis. The Youth Square is a youth development project of the Home Affairs Bureau of the HKSAR Government, intending to be the hub of diversified youth development activities for youth to develop their potential.
Paul Arkwright
Publisher
