Eye-opening experience: Hong Kong student volunteers build bridges in remote mainland Chinese villages, make friends for life

Hongkonger Wong Chung-shing has never forgotten his first trip to Fengshan village in a mountainous area of the sprawling municipality of Chongqing, five hours by bus from the city’s international airport. “I used to visit my relatives in Guangdong province every year, but I’d never been to a place so poor and underdeveloped,” said Wong, recalling his experience in 2017 as a student of construction and environment at Polytechnic University. The village had an unstable tap water supply, no street lights and no footbridge for villagers to cross a river that ran through it. Wong was in a group of more than 70 university students from Hong Kong and mainland China who went to the remote village to build the bridge it lacked. Without enough accommodation, they curled up in sleeping bags at the village committee office that January, when temperatures dropped to 2 or 3 degrees Celsius at night. Within a week, they had built the bridge, forged friendships and derived deep satisfaction from helping the villagers. It was life-changing for Wong. “The gap between urban and rural areas is huge, and it might take years for poor regions to catch up,” he said. “This can’t be changed by one single project or one nationwide policy.” The trip was organised by the Wu Zhi Qiao (Bridge to China) Charitable Foundation, which was set up in Hong Kong in 2007. It supports rural revitalisation on the mainland through environmentally friendly construction projects while also building bridges of friendship between student participants from Hong Kong and the mainland. The foundation is showcasing its development and projects over the past 15 years with an exhibition at the Central Market from November 11 to 15. Wong, who graduated in 2019, said his first experience in Fengshan proved so rewarding he took part in more projects over the next three years and became a coordinator for the team at PolyU. More than 5,500 students and volunteers from 22 universities and institutions in Hong Kong and the mainland have taken part in various projects over the years. They have built 52 footbridges and numerous community enrichment projects, and erected 203 buildings using the sustainable rammed earth technique. These have benefited more than 79,000 underprivileged villagers in remote areas. “The project is a life education for the students,” said businesswoman Leonie Ki Man-fung, founder and honorary president of the foundation. “Many go thinking they are there to help others, but eventually end up learning something valuable themselves, that living simply can be really happy.” Hang Seng University graduate Hugo Law Kwai-nam, 23, a fitness coach, took part in the programme while he was a student, and it helped him understand mainlanders better, especially the poor. He learned the importance of putting himself in the shoes of the villagers. “Sometimes we have to know what the villagers really want, instead of imposing what we think is good for them,” he said. He said Hong Kong participants also realised how much better off they were compared to the poor mainlanders they met, and that helped them appreciate life in the city. “We shouldn’t take everything for granted, but need to be humble and grateful,” he said. The programme has continued through the Covid-19 pandemic, even though Hong Kong students have not been able to cross the border. Instead, they have met mainland students over video conferences and done research, while those on the mainland carried out the physical work in the villages. Assistant Professor Michael Chan Chung of PolyU’s School of Design, a long-time mentor with the programme, said first-hand experience was most useful for national education. “Hong Kong parents are always teaching children that they should love their country and city, but field experience is the best way to achieve the goal,” he said. “When students from both sides are doing the same thing and overcoming difficulties together, they’ll have a deep friendship and deeper understanding of each other. Friends in adversity are the most precious kind of friends.”