A delegation of 40 students and teachers from seven Chinese mainland universities received a warm welcome upon their arrival at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Wednesday, kicking off their nine-day visit to the island.
Invited by the Taiwan-based Ma Ying-jeou Culture and Education Foundation, the delegation is led by Qiu Yong, chairman of Tsinghua University Council.
The mainland students and teachers are from Peking University, Tsinghua University, Fudan University, Sun Yat-sen University, Zhejiang University, Fujian Normal University and Beijing Sport University.
Table tennis gold medalist Ma Long from Beijing Sport University and shooting gold medalist Yang Qian from Tsinghua University are also in the delegation.
On the first day of their visit, the delegation is scheduled to tour Taipei Municipal Zhongshan Girls High School in the afternoon and attend a welcome dinner hosted by the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation in the evening. Delegation leader Qiu Yong, along with Ma Long, Yang Qian and other representatives, will deliver speeches at the dinner.
The delegation will visit six universities as well as scenic spots such as Sun Moon Lake and Taipei Palace Museum so that mainland students will have an in-depth understanding of Taiwan's history and natural beauty.
Ma Long will showcase his table tennis skills during the visit, which Taiwanese fans are eagerly anticipating.
This is the second such visit planned by the foundation. In 2023, faculty members and students from five mainland universities were warmly received across Taiwan, positively impacting cross-Strait relations.
In 2023 and 2024, Ma Ying-jeou, former chairman of the Chinese Kuomintang, also led youth groups from Taiwan on visits to the mainland.
Delegation of mainland university students, teachers warmly received at Taiwan airport
The inaugural Global Food Security Summit (GFSS) was launched in Abu Dhabi of the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday, gathering scientists, tech pioneers, and other industry representatives to offer innovative and cooperative solutions to help address world hunger and promote sustainable development.
The three-day event is being co-hosted through a strategic partnership between the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Center (ADNEC) Group and the Abu Dhabi Agriculture and Food Safety Authority.
According to a joint report released this year by five United Nations agencies, approximately 733 million people worldwide faced hunger in 2023, which means one in every 11 people globally went without sufficient food. The situation is more stark in Africa, where one in every five people struggled to get enough to eat, the report said.
In 2024, in the 71 countries where the UN World Food Programme operates and has available data, as many as 309 million people are facing acute food insecurity.
The GFSS provides an international platform to discuss these challenges and explore opportunities to enhance food security, with over 600 delegates attending and more than 80 speakers sharing their insights.
Meanwhile, the event also focuses on exploring innovative and pragmatic ways to boost long-term sustainability and many exhibitors are on-site to showcase their innovations, including one which places an emphasis on being more green and recycling discarded food items to create new products.
"In the future of kitchen, we don't have waste. What we have is different technology that can transform waste into new materials. Here we have the ritual of oysters. At the end, we have the shell as a result of the experience. This is the leftovers that we crush and we transform it with different organic materials into 3D filament," said Ignacio de Juan-Creix, head of the Future Food Museum at a food exhibition on the sidelines of the event.
Inaugural Global Food Security Summit launched in Abu Dhabi
