More than 100 students started their 2026 China-US College Fencing Invitational & People-to-People Exchange Camp at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, on Thursday.
They come from 17 Chinese and US institutions including Peking University, Tsinghua University, Harvard and Stanford.
“It’s not just the competition, it’s the relationships that you get to create, the experiences that you get to have,” said Donald Anthony, vice-president of the Absolute Development and Exchange Foundation at the opening ceremony.
Zhang Qi, vice-president of Sun Yat-sen University, said: “I hope that in the days ahead, young people from China and the United States will sharpen their skills through competition and deepen their understanding through cultural exchange. May this friendship take root here and grow for years to come.”
Serge Timacheff, special adviser to the foundation, noted in an interview that some of the students are experienced world-class fencers, while others have never traveled significantly. “So this is a unique experience for them to come to China and experience what that’s like,” he said.
The camp, which concludes on Friday, was organized by the Ministry of Education’s China Center for International People-to-People Exchange and Sun Yat-sen University. The center put together similar events with Tsinghua University in Beijing over the last two years.