Arts students beautify village in Ningxia

Traveling more than 2,000 kilometers from southern China, 42 students and six teachers from Huaqiao University's College of Fine Arts in Fujian province visited Minning township in Yongning county, Ningxia Hui autonomous region, over the summer break to take part in an outdoor art project.

The students, including eight from the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and Taiwan, were separated into three groups for their 18-day stay, which began on July 17.

The group's main task was painting murals on the walls of Yuanlong village－some 2,000 square meters in all－depicting subjects that reflected Fujian and Minning.

Hong Kong student Daniel Liang was visiting Ningxia for the first time, a place he'd thought desolate and cold.

That impression changed after he arrived in Minning. He noted that the government had turned the town into a beautiful place in a relatively short time, and he said he felt lucky and proud to be Chinese.

"It was both a pleasure and meaningful to create a cultural bond between Ningxia and Fujian," he said.

In 1996, Fujian paired with Ningxia as part of the country's poverty alleviation program.

The following year, a relocation project began. People from more barren parts of the autonomous region, including Guyuan and Xiji counties, began moving to Minning, which is south of the regional capital Yinchuan and close to the Yellow River.

Since then, the population has grown to about 66,000.

The pairing did not end after poverty alleviation efforts succeeded in Ningxia last year.

In October, with help from Huaqiao University's Ningxia alumni association, faculty paid a visit to Minning to learn more about the local situation and reached a preliminary agreement on future cooperation.

In April, the Minning government and Huaqiao University signed a deal to cooperate on industrial development, tourism planning, e-commerce, training and the development of intellectual property.

The art project was the first to be held under the agreement.

"We were worried about living conditions and brought many daily necessities with us. But things turned out to be much better than we had thought," said Huang Lu, a student who participated in the project.

"A village senior caught my eye. He was curious about us and was watching us drawing while sitting carefully on a stool. Then the children came and joined us once we'd gotten to know one another," Huang said.

Before the students began working on the murals, they toured the local exhibition center to learn more about the town's history.

Wu Chia-en, a student from Taiwan, was astonished by the before-and-after photos of Minning.

"The development of Minning was a joint effort by Fujian and Ningxia," Wu said.

"We came to consolidate that effort to make it a better place. It is my honor to have been part of it and to have felt the bond between the two places firsthand.

"The food there was spicy and delicious. People were so friendly and uncomplicated. Once I left a stool behind, and a villager reminded me to take better care of public property."

Law Ho-tin expressed similar feelings. Born and raised in Hong Kong, Law was impressed by the Helan Mountains and the Yellow River.

Residents welcomed their guests and left a deep impression on the students. "The villagers were very hospitable. They made us tea and bought us drinks and fruit for the hot weather," said Wang Jun-ding, a student from Taiwan.

"The project is a reflection of the friendship between Ningxia and Fujian," said Wang Jiaolai, a teacher at the College of Fine Arts at Huaqiao University.

"To follow up, our university will strengthen cooperation with the Minning government on IP design and development, creative product design, rural tourism planning and e-commerce."