More than 300 Shenzhen and Hong Kong students from 27 pairs of cross-border sister schools joined an annual summer camp in Longgang District in Shenzhen yesterday.

Half of the middle and primary schools are from Luohu District.

During the three-day camp, students are expected to learn more about Shenzhen's history and understand more about environmental protection through a number of activities held at Henggang in Longgang District.

Students will be each given a trash bag during a field trip, with which they will have to clean up garbage while differentiating plant species and exploring the field.

They will also participate in Mandarin, Cantonese and English-speaking competitions at a campfire party, where Hong Kong students will be able to test their own Mandarin skills.

"I have never been to the bronze statue of Deng Xiaoping at Lotus Hill Park before," said a student the Fukien Secondary School (Siu Sai Wan) of Hong Kong.

"But we visited the site this morning, my Shenzhen counterparts explained the history about the special economic zone to me," he said.

The Fukien Secondary School has sister-school ties with Shenzhen's Binhe Middle School.

While Hong Kong students appreciated their Shenzhen friends' hospitality, the local youngsters said they had broadened their horizons and learnt better English from their counterparts.

"They can speak fluent English even still study in a primary school," said a 9-year-old girl from Cuizhu Primary School, a sister school of the Ma Tau Chung Government Primary School (Hung Hom Bay). "They invited me to visit their school after the summer camp."

Ma Aihua, an organizer of the summer camp and an official of the Luohu District Education Bureau, said most students formed long-lasting friendships after the camp.

"We also organize local and Hong Kong teachers to visit each other during school holidays to boost cultural and educational exchanges," she said.

The annual summer camp, named Light of Hope, is aimed at enhancing exchange between local students and teachers and their Hong Kong counterparts.

Some 4,000 students have attended the summer camp since it was first held in 1993, said Ma.

The summer camp had visited Beijing, Shanxi and Hunan in the past years.

Editor: Yan