Freshmen are enrolling in the one-century-old Lanzhou University, where they will receive good education here for the next four years. On the morning of September 4, 2014, the LZU freshmen attended the opening ceremony and the start of their military training at Kunlun Hall Square on Yuzhong Campus. Party Secretary of LZU Wang Hansong, President of LZU Wang Cheng, deputy Party Secretary and Secretary of the Discipline Committee of LZU Li Zhengyuan, Vice President of LZU An Lizhe, Chen Fahu, Xu Shengcheng and Cao Hong, as well as Xia Jiawen, an outstanding alumnus of LZU (academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and researcher of the Institute of Modern Physics of the Chinese Academy of Science),and Colonel Ren Jianjun, Secretary of the PLA Air Force Recruitment and Training Office at LZU and deputy head of the Military Training Group for the 2014 session freshmen, attended the ceremony. The ceremony was presided over by vice President An Lizhe.
At 8:30 in the morning in front of the Kunlun Hall, beside the Tsuiying Mountain, over 4,600 newly-enrolled freshmen were dressed in military uniforms and lined up with valiant and spirited temperament.
Secretary Wang Hansong announced the beginning of the opening ceremony and the start of the military training and present the flag.
President Wang Cheng delivered a warm speech to the freshmen, focusing on three questions: “what is a university for”, “how to spend your college years” and “what can you get from the university”.
President Wang Cheng mentioned that a university plays an important role in talents training, scientific research, social services and cultural heritage and innovation. Among these, talent training is its fundamental function. A good university should be a fertile land to nurture academic thoughts, enhance people’s understanding of science, humanities and art. Since LZU was established more than a century before, the basic spirits of “being self-reliant and unique” and the study style of “being diligent, pragmatic and progressive” have become the characteristics of generations of LZU students and the essential content linking the past, present and future of LZU.
President Wang Cheng held that the freshmen were expected to calm down from the joy of being admitted by their dreamed university and start to consider about their new life and be cautious not to deviate from their proper orbit. The university is not only a platform for students’ comprehensive growth and improvement but also the watershed of their life. Students should get the good quality from the rich knowledge they achieved in the university, get the courage and vision of thinking independently and heading forward, and develop good life habits and distinctive charisma.
“I want you to know that the most important thing in life is not where you come from, but where you are heading for,” said President Wang Cheng to the freshmen. He continued that training students into noble talents had been the ultimate target of LZU in talent training. The college education that freshmen are about to receive is not only an acquirement of a large scale of knowledge but more of a baptism of their personalities and spirits. It will guide the students to think about how to live a meaningful life and help them develop sound values and outlook on the world and life in accordance with the requirements of the time and the nation. He hopes that students could all become strong people in life that are responsible for their country, grateful to their family, faithful and helpful to their friends and positive and brave enough to go forward and explore.
President Wang Cheng said that the opening ceremony would be followed by a special training lesson- military training. He hopes students to strictly follow the disciplines and actively participate in the training, so as to improve the awareness of national defense, develop strong will and lay a good start for college life.
At the ceremony, deputy Party Secretary and Secretary of the Discipline Committee of LZU Li Zhengyuan announced the “Notification on Establishing Military Training Working Group and League for LZU Freshmen in 2014”. Prof. Wang Weiping from the School of Marxism delivered an idealistic and romantic speech on behalf of the LZU faculty. Gao Ruipeng, a junior student from the School of Mathematics and Statistics, and Ding Ning, a student from the School of History and Culture respectively delivered speeches on behalf of the undergraduates and the freshmen.
Members of the reception working group, the military training working group of the freshmen, military training instructors from the PLA Air Force, instructors of national defense students in LZU, teachers responsible for the freshmen military training, the freshmen and parents of some freshmen attended the ceremony.
The LZU Dream is as splendid as the Tsuiying Mountain is. A four-year-long story has begun among the freshmen. As the heroes, they will gradually fill the story with their happiness and sorrows. Over the coming four years, their stories of youth will make a new chapter of the glamourous LZU.
(Translated by Wei Xianchao; proofread by Sissi Xu)
