IFT and TCZJ jointly organised Summer International Exchange Programme 2010 “Chinese Gastronomy and Culture”

Chinese culinary art has a long history and cuisines of Shandong, Sichuan, Guangdong and Jiangsu form the four major streams. Macanese cuisine is a hybrid of culinary flavours from China, Portugal as well as places like Africa and South-east Asia. It is indeed a cultural product under the east-meets-west influence. Institute for Tourism Studies (IFT), Macao, and Tourism College of Zhejiang (TCZJ), China, both being members of the Network of Asia-Pacific Education and Training Institutes in Tourism (APETIT), jointly organised the Summer International Exchange Programme 2010 - “Chinese Gastronomy and Culture”, which is one of the celebration activities for IFT’s 15th anniversary. IFT had sponsored programme fee to 5 students from local institutions (3 from IFT and 2 from University of Macau) for sharing the joy of our anniversary. The Programme was held from 7 to 12 July in Hangzhou, with 14 participants coming from Mainland China, Macao, Japan and Finland. During the programme, participants attended seminars, field trips and workshops. Speakers from TCZJ and IFT took the opportunity to introduce Chinese gastronomy and culture as well as its history. Participants were amazed by the seminar topics and they hands-on production was an eye-opener for them. The programme was well concluded by student groups summarising what they had learnt and certificate presentation. Since 1998, this Summer Programme has been launched with different annual themes. It brought students from various places to Macao for cultural exchange. Starting from last year, IFT collaborated with an overseas partner in India through APETIT, which was an eye-opener for students. With our rich cultural heritage in Macao, the opportunity to experience other cultures is certainly beneficial to those who will step into the tourism industry in the future. This is the second year that IFT had the programme partnered with an institution beyond Macao. IFT strives to elevate and globalise its tourism education in the region through organising different types of exchange programmes to broaden the horizon of the students. The cultural diversity thus acquired can definitely help prepare them for their career in the tourism industry.