Foreigners get a taste of China

During the course of the summer camp, students attend performances of Peking Opera and the dragon dance, visit the Great Wall, Tian'anmen Square and the Forbidden City, and spend time with Chinese families.

They also have lessons on language, Chinese painting, paper-cutting and kung fu.

Yet for students like Fekete, the summer camp is more than just experiencing Chinese culture. It is also about meeting people from different cultures and learning how cultural backgrounds shape their views of China.

Zhu Qi, the director of Beijing Foreign Studies University Confucius Institute's Cultural Exchange Department and a manager of the summer camp, says: "Here, students not only learn about Chinese language and culture. They also learn how peers from other countries learn Chinese."

One of the students' favorite programs is the Meetand-Greet.

It is an icebreaker, during which students from different countries form groups and compete in games and team building.

Mark van Couwenberghe from Belgium, the coordinator of Broedersschool Sint-Niklaas Chinese Language Courses and leader of the Belgian students at the camp, says: "It is like a mini Olympic Games or mini United Nations."

There are also activities such as Cultural Corner, which involves students introducing traditional food and cultural products from their countries, and flag-design, which requires students to draw a flag that integrates both elements from their own cultures and China.

Group Activities Without Borders is the biggest difference of this year's camp, according to Chang Bingyu of Beijing Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, also a manager of the summer camp.

"This is the 10th year of the program. We wanted to break boundaries," says Chang.

Zhou Yifan contributed to the story.