Cruise boats become floating classrooms for the summer
The floating classroom courses are launched.
Cruise boats on Shanghai's renowned Huangpu River and Suzhou Creek have been turned into floating classrooms this summer.
A series of courses covering topics such as the city's modernization and the ecological improvement of Suzhou Creek over the past decades have been launched by the Shanghai Youth League.
Considered an innovative approach targeting the city's young generation, the floating classes string resources along the Huangpu River and Suzhou Creek, enabling people to learn the city's opening-up process, its economic and financial growth, innovation development, as well as the industrial development along Suzhou Creek. The clean-up efforts that turned the creek into a backyard garden of local citizens were also included.
Children attend a floating class aboard a boat on Huangpu River on Tuesday.
Suzhou Creek holds a special place in the hearts of Shanghai residents. The region's silks and ceramics were carried along the Maritime Silk Road during the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907), and centuries later the area became an early industrial hub of the city.
The industrial heritage left the creek's water murky in the 1980s. Cleaning up the pollution and redeveloping its banks have been projects underway for years.
The 10 courses unveiled on Tuesday also cover the construction of the city as an international economic, financial, trade, shipping and science and innovation center with global influence. The courses were developed by the team led by Su Zhiliang, a professor at Shanghai Normal University and a researcher at the Shanghai Research Institute of Culture and History.
"It's a unique class and offers an opportunity to learn the two iconic rivers of Shanghai," said a 20-something attendee surnamed Chen on Tuesday. "I learned how they took on a new look with cleaning-up and improvement campaigns, and it is very impressive."
Stories behind the renovation of old residential complexes along the creek and its water quality improvement will be shared as well.
A class is delivered on a ship on Tuesday.
