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New camp bridges the Taiwan Strait with astronomy

A youth foundation yesterday launched a cross-strait astronomy camp, with junior high school students from Beijing joining their counterparts in Taiwan for a week of cultural exchange and study of the heavens.

The Tosun Public Interest Foundation, an organization that deals with youth issues, organized the program, in which 20 students from China and 40 from Taiwan will participate in the week-long camp and tour the nation.

The camp officially begins tomorrow and will last until Friday.

Liao Cheng-hao (廖正豪), the foundation's director, said that the astronomy camp will take place on Alishan and Yushan, where there are clear skies that offer an excellent view of planets and stars.

Liao said that the camp was a rare opportunity for youth from both sides of the Taiwan Strait to meet and learn from one another.

Foundation vice executive director Viviane Tien (田慧群) added that the Beijing astronomical museum had already indicated that Taiwanese students were welcome to visit for a similar program in China next year.

Jing Hairong (景海榮), the vice director of Beijing's astronomical museum, said that the group could learn a lot from Taiwan's astronomical museum and that the exchanges would help promote astronomical education in China.

Jing said that the Chinese students will share what they learned in Taiwan with other students upon their return to Beijing.

Liu Ge, an eighth-grade student and member of the astronomy club of Beijing's Jingshang Middle School, said it was her first visit to Taiwan, and that she was excited to learn about the students here as well as view the heavens from Taiwan.

Miao Jun (苗軍), a teacher from the school, said that Beijing's skies were "less clean," which made it harder to view stars and planets.

A representative from the Taipei astronomical museum, Chiang Chung-jen (江崇仁), said that astronomical education in Taiwan consisted of just a few science classes at school, which only covered the basics. Schools should do more to emphasize astronomy, Chiang said.
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