Over 20 days, 40 international students from 10 countries showed their achievements through an exhibition with 4 themes— it is Sino-Finnish Centre, the inclusive platform, which enables the blending of diverse cultures, and realizes the cooperation among different minds. In August 2012, Shanghai Summer School was successfully held in SFC, and how to provide practical advices for the sustainable development of Chinese rural and urban localization internationally become the key words for this Summer School.

For international students, if they want to know about China, there is nothing better than attending a summer school, which can be demonstrated through the final exhibition. 40 students from different countries have been divided into 4 groups, and propose their own ideas and advices on the following 4 topics: “Urban-rural Space”, “Green Design”, “Urban-rural Image ” and “Entrepreneurship”. For example, “Urban-rural Space” group tries to find an innovative interaction plan through analyzing the history of Shanghai urban planning, and through marketing researches on different business forms, “Entrepreneurship” group provides some constructive advices for bringing the brand into Chinese local market.

Though worked late till midnight before the exhibition, all students felt it worths when everyone seeing their abundant achievements and interesting games in the exhibition. And all of the inspirations for exhibition are from the visits and field researches provided by our Summer School. Traveling from downtown Shanghai to Zhejiang Province and then to Chongming Island, enables the students to feel both the urban prosperity and the rural peacefulness: from shopping malls to small commodities wholesale markets, from modern business parks to Chinese folk sceneries, including Zhangjiang Hi-tech Park, Shanghai Science and Technology Museum, Yiwu Small Commodities Market, Zhujiajiao, Jiaxing South Lake, Farmer’s house in Chongming, wetland park, Glass Museum, etc.. Everything is new to international students, and every corner of the city becomes the source of their inspiration.

In addition to relevant lectures and courses in SFC, the students also went to local food market, learnt bamboo weaving and played football in Chongming, watched Chinese movies, etc.. All the above cultural experiences made this summer school full of fun, and also enhanced the students’ enthusiasm and cohesion. An international student said: “I used to attend some other summer schools, but the process cannot let me satisfied since the organizers did not care about our schedule and we can only go out by ourselves. While, I love this one, the schedule is very tight and we can get instant help from the accompanying staff. ”