Holding steadfast to the tradition, 150 Chinese students and scholars from 12 Dutch cities traveled to Enschede’s NS train station, arriving in the morning at 10:30am on 23 October, to compete in the third annual badminton tournament that was held this year for the first time on a university campus.
On that day, the Connexxion bus driver, who was responsible for bus one going to the university, looked on in shock when he saw over a hundred Chinese players, standing on the train platform and beginning to walk in the direction of his bus. With swift efficiency, the unidentified driver dispatched two buses to bring the students directly to the university, waiving the bus fare. That is what a distant observer might call ‘out-of-the-blue’ Dutch hospitality or just plain good luck for the 14 badminton teams in need of transportation.
‘They really surprised the bus driver,’ said PhD candidate Mingliang Jin with a hearty laugh. ‘When this was happening, players began to call me and asked: “Which bus do we need to take?” I told them: “Take the number one.” The bus drivers even changed the normal route and the players were driven directly to the Sports Center - without any charges. Some of the players said to us: “You really organized this tournament well. You arranged free buses!” But then I had to tell them it wasn’t true. You need to thank the Conexxion bus company.’
When the players finally arrived, they ate lunch, a typical Dutch meal with cheese and bread that was provided by the association, and then listened to speeches at the opening ceremony by Xiaoqin Sheng and Ning Lin, who gave a brief history about the tournament. Later, the 130 participants played matches in the afternoon to compete for the top three positions to win gold, silver or bronze medallions.
Public relations officer for the local chapter who helped organize the event, Yanbo Xie, was pleased with the outcome. ‘This is the third year the tournament has been held in the Netherlands. The first two tournaments were in Amsterdam and Utrecht, but this year marks the first time at a university. Our sponsors were the International Office, Student Union and Sport Council (Sportraad) of the Sports Center. They really helped support our event and charged us for the use of the facilities, but we received a 50% discount and were able to use the entire Sports Center complex where we could set up 20 courts in seven separate rooms. Many of the team leaders said they would like to sponsor the event next year, but they think it would be a real challenge to come up with the adequate space to host so many teams.’
Sharing Xie’s sentiment, Zhongzi Wang, 28, who is an applied physics engineer in the Charge Particle Optics group at TU Delft, reflected, ‘We appreciated the sponsorship of University of Twente. As Chinese students and scholars, we had the opportunity to gather from all parts of the Netherlands to enjoy a fun-filled badminton tournament. Our team members were also deeply impressed by the meticulous organization of the tournament. They did a great job! We look forward to meeting all teams and friends in the next tournament.’
Mr. Lei Xia from the Education Department of the Chinese Embassy joined in the matches. He awarded Delft with the Gold, the UT with silver and Leiden with bronze medallions in the closing ceremony.
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| Rife with grace under pressure: Delft 1 battles Maastricht in the third match courts at the UT Sports Center. Team members from Maastricht spent eight hours travel time on the road to participate in the competition and return back home, showing their skills for the first time in the Chinese badminton tournament on 23 October. |
Association of Chinese students and scholars
The main national branch of the Association of Chinese Students and Scholars in the Netherlands (ACSSNL) services over 7,000 students and scholars, has eight board members and 17 local chapters. Any higher education institute with 20 to 30 Chinese students can start their own branch. National association news and events in the Netherlands are communicated through e-mails by using an internal mailing list.
Looking ahead, the local chapter of ACSSNL plans to participate in the upcoming International Food Festival on 16 November after last year’s success when they sold out of food within the first half hour. ‘We are still thinking about what to serve on the menu,’ said Jin. ‘We will definitely make more food. Next year, we’ll start to plan for our biggest yearly event, the Chinese New Year, when we will celebrate the year of the rabbit.’
