The Sungkyun Times

Mountain-climbing, Olympics and Peace

Zhou Jianjun [Graduate student ,Academy of East Asia Studies, SKKU] zhou@skku.edu

As a famous saying goes that “The life lies in the movement.” Saying good-bye to Beijing in last year, I have been in Seoul for one year and more. Before I came to Korea, according to TV and Internet, I was impressed by Korean famous sports programmes (especially football match and kickboxing match) .After I came here, I had opportunities to watch and take part in some intersting sports programmes.These unusual experiences made my life studying abord more colorful, and made me understand the living manner of korean people well than before. Except for football and kickboxing, it seems that mountain-climbing is very popupar among korean people. In Korea, wherever you go, you can always find a lot of  korean people who are to climb mountains.

The most intersting experience for me is Gwanaksan-climbing.  As one of the five most representative peaks of Gyeonggi-do, Gwanaksan is a beautiful mountain near Seoul National University. On the sides of alley to the peak of Gwanaksan, the trees and flowers bloom, birds return from their migrations and there is a general sense of garity in the air. Especially, being ditinct from (those) professional players on football and kickboxing, common korean people’s love of mountain-climbing impressed me a lot.

For a lot of people, persisting in mountain-climbing is not easy in the long run because mountain-climbing is a challenge for patience and persistence of human beings. However, on each weekend, Gwanaksan is converged on by a lot of people who love mountain-climbing, even including some old people and children. You can feel the love on sports from kroean people, not those professional athletes. In fact, the peak of Gwanaksan is very steep and dangerous for old people and children. However, those people who love mountain-climbing always feel happy to accept the challenge and overcome diffticulties during the process of the mountain-climbing, especially for those old people and children. I am greatly impressed by their pesistence and encouragement and have acquired a lot from them. Under the influence of them, I began to like mountain-climbing in every weekend than before.

 Also, luckly, we always meet some people who climbed mountain together (last time).Even I could make friends with them, following with encouragement and help for me among all of them. Usually, while I was climbing and felt very tired and thirsty, there were always some kind people who encourged me to keep my pace and taught me some climbing skills that made me faster and easier to my goal, and even something intersting about korea. I was very thankful to those polite korean friends.  I am very glad that I can come to korea and raise other customs which helps me change my life style and widen my horizon. In future, if I am free I am willing to climb all the famous moutains in Seoul. Even though mountain-climbing seems not so interesting as other sports programmes, however, only those who persist in mountain-climbing can realize its enjoyment and get benefit from it.

The life lies in the movement. By movement of mountain-climbing , in one side, I can enjoy the beauty of moutains in Korea , on the other hand, I can make exercise and keep my body in shape. What’s more important, from mountain-climbing I makes myself feel enjoyment and friendship, and widen my understanding on sports. Sports is an effective way that could widen understanding and close the distance between each person with different backgounds.

On the 8^th August of this year, the biggest sports ceremony in the world – Olympic Games --will be hosted by Beijing, China. The upcoming games in Beijing are planned to comprise 302 events in 28 sports. Beijing government and citizens have already prepared for this wonderful athletics activity as far as they can. 2008 Beijing Olympic Games will become one of the biggest Olympic Games. As far as we know, the original Olympic Games were first recorded in 776 BC in Olympia, Greece, and were celebrated until AD 393 and the first modern Olympic Games were organised by the new founded International Olympic Committee in 1896 in Athens, Greece. However, in the long history of Olympic Games, Olympic Games only be held by European and North American countries; just a few games have been held by other continets’ countries. As Chinese, we consider 2008 Beijing Olympic Games as a great pride for China’s great success among the recent years.

 On the 27th April, as an important part of Olympic Games, in order to diliver the friendship from chinese people to korean people, the Olympics Torch symbolizing peace visited Seoul. The Olympics Torch was warmly welcomed by hundreds of thousands of Korean people and foreign students in Korea. With my Chinese friends who come from Mainland, Taipei and Hongkong, I also took part in this Olympics Torch Relay in Seoul. In order to welcome the Olympics Torch , all of us gave up their holiday and looked forward to the arrival of the Olympics Torch. Because all of us have a common wish: One world One dream ---- aiming  for unity,friendship,progress,harmony,participation and dream of this world. Under the great dream of Olympic for peace and prosperity, different people with different background gathered together and blessed for the future of human beings. As the song of 2008 Beijing Olympic Games sings that “When you and I and everyone unite……. Our shared tomorrow will be all right”

The life lies in the movement. What’s more important than athletics is the understanding and friendship among nations and people that basis on different circumstances around the world. Olympics were established to promote peace and prosperity among the various countries of the world. However, in Asia, in the last century, large-scale wars had brought a lot of disaster to the Asian people. Reviewing the painful history, as a youth of Asia, we have responsibility to prevent the history to repeat itself.

 However, both in Taiwan Strait and in Korean Peninsula, peace is still an unsolved problem for some complicated problems. As a paper said, East Asia is one of the most dangerous regions in this world. However, facing the great challenge and difficulty in the same time in East Asia, just as the danger and difficulty of mountain-climbing, we haven’t any reason to stop my pace for a peaceful world. Don’t let complexities stop us. Be activists.

 Just as President of Seo Jung Don of Sungkyunkwan University’s greeting in the ceremony of Besttowing the Honorary Doctorate Degree in Philosophy of Lien Chan(The Honorary Chinaman of Kuomintang) for his “promote to the peace in North-East Asia”, “positive dialogue” is an important way to promote the understanding, communication, and coopration among east asian regions.The Northeast countries need to expand multilateral dialogue and cummmunication. As the youth of Asia, we have responsibility to fight for the understanding, communication, and coopration among east asian regions , for the bright future of human beings.

The life lies in the movement. The movement or Olympics should beyond itself!