More than 1,000 students, divided into groups of seven, took part in the 'Millennium Study Tour' during the summer vacation.
They visited 14 cities in the mainland, Germany, the United States, Japan, Canada, Britain, Australia, Sweden and also Singapore. The visit enabled them to take a closer look at environmental protection facilities and the latest developments in the hi-tech field.
'The tour was designed to offer opportunities to students to broaden their horizons and to get to know peoples from different cultures and backgrounds,' said Winnie Cheung Yun-mei, representative of the organisers, the Li Ka Shing Foundation.
After their return, each group was required to complete a report within a week. A jury made up of university experts, curriculum development officers from the Education Department and representatives from the foundation was set up to pick the winner.
A group of seven secondary students from different schools who went on a trip to the city of Qingdao and got a glimpse of the city's application of modern technologies to environmen tal protection won the championship.
Ronald Cheng Chung-tai, a Form Seven science student at the Tsoi Kung Po Secondary School, who was the team leader of the group said he was deeply impressed with the environmentally-friendly measures of the local government of Qingdao. 'Most people tend to think mainland cities are heavily polluted, but this is not true about Qingdao.'