VW China's environmental program big hit in Urumqi

An education program named 'young environmental ambassador' has seen great gains since it was launched in Urumqi Foreign Languages School in October last year.

Established jointly by Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography Chinese Academy of Science,

Volkswagen Group China, German Embassy and Goethe Institut, the program aims to raise environmental protection awareness among China's young.

The schools started with 100 students and later expanded to more than 3,000, with classes on forestry, climate and energy arranged during the semester. Students also had the opportunity to experience the nature by going into the forest for various activities.

Yang Xiao, a teacher at the school, said that the students are very keen to learn about the nature. "We have monthly field trips to the forest where students can put up names and signs on different trees and plants, as well as collect garbage," Yang said. "It's very important for school to cultivate students from a young age about the importance of environmental protection and it's fulfilling to see them spreading the concept to people around them, including parents and friends."

According to Yang, the school will provide results and feedbacks of the classes to related institutes so they can plan their future movements accordingly.

Nie Xiaoxu, a student who participated in the education program, said that he feels a big change about environment after taking the classes and going on the field trips. "From a drop of water to a whole forest, they all need our protection," he said. "I talk to people around me quite a lot about what I've learned in the classes and I really enjoy the experience."

"We hope that the program can keep benefit more students, in Xinjiang and also other places since we have seen fruitful result in such a short period of time," Yang added.

The program is part of the PASCH Project, a program that started in 2008 that brings German courses and German-Chinese cultural exchanges into middle schools.

The PASCH Project now has 35 partner middle schools in 18 provinces all over China, many of which had never before offered German courses.

From this year on, Volkswagen Group China will keep pushing the program mode through with partners to 13 cities where the company has factories in and 85 middle schools that PASCH Project cooperates with.