More than 40 students and teachers from the United States and China gathered in Chongqing this week for a summer camp marking the 85th anniversary of the Flying Tigers, the US volunteer group that helped China fight Japanese invaders during World War II.
The camp started on Sunday and runs through Wednesday. It brought a US delegation together with students from three Chongqing education institutions for visits, dialogues, and cultural exchange.
The Chongqing camp was part of a larger program run by the Sino-American Aviation Heritage Foundation, a US nonprofit that studies and commemorates US-China aviation history. The foundation is organizing trips for nearly 200 students from Flying Tigers Friendship Schools in the US to visit China from June 27 to July 29, with exchanges across nine cities, including Wuhan, Zhengzhou, Fuzhou, and Chongqing.
In Chongqing, participants visited the Stilwell Museum, the former residence of US General Joseph Stilwell, and took part in a salon themed around youth driving a shared future. A friendly table tennis match marked the 55th anniversary of China-US Ping-Pong Diplomacy.
"I used to think the Flying Tigers were mostly American pilots alone," said Dylan Mancini, 15, from East Side Community High School in New York City, "but now I've learned that Chinese soldiers and ordinary civilians also took part ... building roads for soldiers to pass through."
