Walking Youth: Students in Qinglong Step Out of Campus to Experience Real Life

Shortly before the May Fourth Youth Day, No. 1 Middle School of Qinglong Manchu Autonomous County in Hebei Province did not hold a gala or a report meeting. Instead, more than 1,000 students packed their bags, walked out of the campus, and walked into a "larger classroom" — the land under their feet. They walked into villages, streets, supermarkets and clinics deep in the Yanshan Mountains, spent a day doing work they had never done before, and listened to the most ordinary stories of people around them. This special "class" is named "Walking Youth".

People’s Daily reports that Qinglong Manchu Autonomous County is located deep in the Yanshan Mountains, where villages are surrounded by green mountains and inherit rich folk customs, making it an ideal place for students to experience life and understand society. During the activity, students threw themselves into various jobs and gained precious insights from practice.

At Jiayuan Supermarket, a student named Yao Sitong put on an apron and worked as a stock clerk. She originally thought the job was simple, only to find that there were many skills in arranging goods — which items should be placed on the outer layer, which promotional products should be put in prominent positions, and which expired products should be removed in time. "Bending over to arrange goods all morning made my back ache," she said, adding that she had never thought about the efforts behind the neat shelves when shopping in the supermarket before.

Another student, Wang Jialin, had a harder experience. He worked in two supermarkets, doing stock work in one and selling vegetables at a vegetable stall in the other. Lifting vegetables, weighing them, pasting labels and greeting customers, he stood for a whole day, feeling his legs as heavy as lead. He admitted that he used to think he was better than vegetable sellers as a student, but he realized he could not even arrange vegetables neatly after the experience.

Some students chose to experience work in rural clinics. Ning Yuqing went to Ganhezi Village in Dawulan Town and followed a village doctor on home visits. The village doctor has worked in the village for more than ten years, keeping track of every villager’s health condition. When they visited an elderly left-behind resident whose son worked outside, the doctor first asked about the old man’s meals, then helped him put on the blood pressure cuff and repeatedly reminded him to take medicine on time and eat less salt. Ning Yuqing stood aside, unable to insert a word, and later wrote in her notebook that grassroots doctors were not like those who performed operations on TV, but those who sat by the kang and cared for the elderly meticulously.

Not all experiences were physical work. Student Chi Xu talked with a professor from Northeastern University at Qinhuangdao, who was born in a rural mountain area. The professor told him that he used to walk more than ten miles of mountain roads to go to school and had frostbite on his hands in winter, but he always had a dream to go out and see the world beyond the mountains. Now, the professor not only realized his dream but also guided more young people to pursue their goals.

After the activity, every student wrote a letter to their "selves in ten years". There were no restrictions on the content, but many letters conveyed the same meaning: no matter what they do in the future, they will not forget the experience of this day. Yao Sitong wrote that she would see if she had done things well in ten years, while Ning Yuqing hoped to become a useful person like the village doctor.

The school collected all the letters and sealed them in a box to be opened ten years later. This is not only a ceremony but also a solemn educational commitment. At present, the school plans to carry out such practical activities regularly, allowing more students to step out of the campus, experience labor, understand society and establish correct outlooks on life and values. This activity also reflects the educational concept of integrating classroom teaching with social practice, setting a good example for quality education in rural areas.