International Study Tour 'Walking China, Sustaining Cultural Heritage' Visits Kaifeng

On 26 July, the 'Walking China, Sustaining Cultural Heritage' International Study Tour, co-organised by the Middle School Students' Study Paper and the Global Association of Cultural and Educational Exchange (GACEE), arrived in Kaifeng, Henan. After visiting the Hanyuan Stele Forest and Qingming Riverside Park, it held the unveiling ceremony for the 'Global Chinese Calligraphy Study Base'.

The Hanyuan Stele Forest is a cultural garden integrating ancient and modern calligraphic art, housing several thousand stone inscriptions by masters across dynasties. These cover seal, clerical, regular, running, and cursive scripts, systematically illustrating the evolution of Chinese calligraphy and serving as an important site for its transmission and study. Adjacent to it, Qingming Riverside Park is a large-scale Song-dynasty-themed cultural park modelled on Zhang Zeduan’s *Along the River During the Qingming Festival*, showcasing urban life, architecture, and cultural essence of the Northern Song period.

The designation of the base establishes a benchmark platform for Chinese calligraphy study for overseas Chinese youth, giving tangible support to cultural inheritance. By integrating resources, it also promotes deeper integration of Chinese calligraphy with education, helping build cross-border cultural exchange bridges—ensuring the continuity of Chinese cultural heritage among young people and spreading Chinese calligraphy stories worldwide.

Attending the unveiling ceremony were Cai Yisu, President of GACEE; Li Kaizhen, Publisher and Chief Editor of the Middle School Students' Study Paper; and Liu Dong, Deputy Director of the Kaifeng Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio, Television, Sports and Tourism.

Participants affirmed that, building on this designation and leveraging Kaifeng’s rich resources in Chinese calligraphy culture, they would develop a globally oriented Chinese calligraphy study platform to advance the popularisation, research, and transmission of the art form.

The 'Walking China, Sustaining Cultural Heritage' International Study Tour aims to deepen participants’ understanding of the long history and profound depth of Chinese civilisation through an intensive eight-day, seven-night programme. This visit to Kaifeng—and the unveiling ceremony—exemplifies that vision and lays a solid foundation for broader Chinese calligraphy study activities in the future.

(Correspondent: Li Na)