After these ten days of the IOAA journey, I feel as if I have undergone a transformation, a transformation of life. I express my experiences and feelings of these days with the following simple words.
09.12 — Departure
The days of departure and return are often the most exhausting. I set off at 7:30 AM, first taking an hour-long express bus to Zhaoqing, and then spending another two hours on the airport express bus from Zhaoqing to Baiyun Airport. Immediately after, I boarded flight CA1352. Fortunately, everything was normal and there were no delays, but it was another long 2.5 hours. Around 4:00 PM, the plane finally landed at Capital International Airport. Tragically, I waited for nearly half an hour to get my luggage, and then it was "Airport Express — Subway — Beijing Planetarium," another 1.5 hours. It wasn’t until after 6:00 PM that I appeared at the entrance of the Beijing Planetarium. I didn’t expect the situation to be so similar to the training camp: I was once again the last to arrive.
I met everyone in the underground canteen in Beijing and had dinner. The Chinese team was divided into a Main Team and a Guest Team. The leader for the Main Team was Mr. Zhang Changxi, and the leader for the Guest Team was Ms. Guo Xia. After dinner, we checked into the Xiyuan Hotel near the North Building. I seem to remember the room was 2020 (20th floor!), and my roommate was Wu Bin from the Affiliated High School of SCNU, a quiet young man. The first day ended quietly.
09.13 — Opening & Transfer
The 13th was the day of the opening ceremony, held on the second floor of Building B of the Planetarium. Everyone gathered there after breakfast, and the ceremony officially opened at 9:00 AM. The opening ceremony was hosted by Mr. Zhang Ziping (in fact, Mr. Zhang Ziping hosted almost the entire competition process; I would like to thank him here for his important efforts and selfless dedication!). During the ceremony, Director Zhu Jin and leaders from the observatory gave speeches, followed by brief introductions from each country’s team on stage. After the opening ceremony, we took a group photo and then had lunch.
In the afternoon, we moved our base. All participating students had their mobile phones and laptops confiscated and were transferred to a place called "Lilin Mountain Villa" in Miyun County, Beijing. This is a two-star hotel with decent basic conditions (though, of course, it cannot be compared with the five-star Xiyuan), and the observation conditions were okay. Most students stayed with people from other countries; my roommate was a contestant from Indonesia, very, very tall... We had dinner in the evening, after which the teams from various countries performed programs. The Chinese team sang the "Song of Beijing Planetarium" and "Shoulder of Giants." During this time, I slightly felt the frankness and enthusiasm of my foreign friends... After the performances, we had our first stargazing session (unexpectedly, this was basically the only time we went stargazing).
09.14 — Visiting the Observatory
According to the plan, we were supposed to visit both the Xinglong and Huairou observation bases. However, we tragically found that after visiting the Huairou Solar Observing Station, time was severely insufficient, and we had to give up the planned visit to the Xinglong Observatory. This was a regret of the competition, and even more so a great regret for me: in 2009 I didn’t get to see LAMOST, and in 2010 I still couldn’t witness LAMOST with my own eyes... By the way, on the way back from the visit, there was a small interlude: Shopping! I didn’t expect my foreign friends to go on such a shopping spree...
09.15 — Great Wall & Theoretical Exam
The theoretical exam, originally scheduled for the morning, was moved to the afternoon, so we visited the Great Wall in the morning. However, although it was called the Great Wall, it was just a "Wild Great Wall" right behind Lilin. After the contestants worked hard to climb up, they only saw a damaged "General’s Tower." Consequently, the most common sentence from our foreign friends after reaching the top was "Where is the Great Wall?", and we could only answer "This is a part of the Great Wall...". We went down the mountain very quickly. I think our foreign friends were wondering, "Is this one of the seven wonders of the world?" It seemed to be an unsatisfactory trip.
In the afternoon, a five-hour theoretical exam was held. I won’t express much opinion on the questions; I did them quite smoothly, though I left one question blank (that question required remembering the apparent magnitude of Vega, and then I was doomed). Other questions were okay. However, I realized afterwards that I still had many oversights. In the process of summarizing these oversights, my initial transformation was completed. In future scientific research processes, I will become more rigorous and cautious.
09.16 — Great Wall & Basketball
It seemed the Planetarium also felt their mistake (the Great Wall incident yesterday), so they canceled the data analysis competition in the morning and organized another trip to the Great Wall, this time to Mutianyu. For some reason, I didn’t go that day and stayed in my room bored all morning. I really don’t know what I was thinking at the time... But later I found a reason to comfort myself: leave a little regret for myself, and at the same time, give myself a lot of motivation!
In the afternoon, we went to Miyun Middle School to communicate with local students. During this time, we watched a short film about the starry sky of the four seasons in the mobile planetarium (caravan). The next focus was the basketball game between IOAA and Miyun Middle School. The contestants worked hard on the court, but they were still no match for the Miyun Middle School team, which is known for its basketball skills (30 vs 60). Amidst laughter, applause, and cheers, the day ended.
09.17 — Data Analysis & Team Competition
The data analysis competition was scheduled for the morning, roughly from 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM. Many new terms appeared in the data analysis, which caught me off guard, and I only performed at an average level on this paper. In the evening, there was a small team competition. The content was to assemble a telescope, which was completed quickly and seemed quite easy...
09.18 — Observation & Planetarium & Shopping
The Planetarium seems to have a strong affinity for cloudy days; the three selected observation attempts were all cloudy. There was no choice but for everyone to go to the Beijing Planetarium and enter the Zeiss Planetarium for a simulation exam. The exam questions were very simple: identify constellations, identify the celestial equator, determine the month, and the moon’s age. It could almost be called the simplest in the history of international competitions. However, I was still quite unfortunate and only got a bit more than half the points. Next was watching a dome movie, visiting the planetarium, and lunch... Our mobile phones and laptops, which had been away from us for many days, finally met us again.
The afternoon was shopping time, which was an experience I somewhat regretted. I could have chosen to stay at the Planetarium to read or buy books, but I still followed everyone to the mall. I realized later that I had no other time to buy books at the Planetarium, so visiting Beijing twice (the other time was the training camp) without buying books is a great regret of my Beijing trip. However, going to the mall and guiding foreign friends in shopping was still very happy. Especially watching Indonesian friends buy tea, fans, and mooncakes... I felt an indescribable touch in my heart.
09.19 — Ancient Observatory & Forbidden City & Activities
The exams were completely over, and the sky showed signs of clearing up... Originally, we were going to three places today, but the trip to Beihai Park was also canceled due to time constraints. In the morning, we came to the Ancient Observatory to visit ancient Chinese astronomical culture and had a McDonald’s lunch there. The afternoon was Forbidden City time. Tragically, as soon as we entered the Forbidden City, both my and Xie Yonghao’s cameras ran out of battery... we could only walk around... We gathered at Tiananmen at 3:00 PM and originally planned to return after 3:00 PM. Unexpectedly, time was delayed first because a group of us went in the wrong direction, and then because a foreign friend got lost. We finally set off to return after 5:00 PM.
This time we did not return to Lilin, but to the "Century Sunshine Holiday Hotel," where the team leaders were staying. In the evening, we had a banquet there and performed for each other. During this time, I was deeply shocked by the way our foreign friends enjoyed themselves. I felt that foreign youth are the truly vibrant ones! As contestants of the Chinese team, we seemed unable to be as carefree and passionate as they were. For us, isn’t this also a kind of regret?
After all the activities, we returned to Lilin. This was an unusual night because some people were leaving the next day, so many began to exchange gifts to commemorate this hard-won meeting. Seeing the enthusiastic foreign friends, I was deeply moved and shocked. I finally understood what "the gift is small but the sentiment is deep" means. A Thai friend gave me a small bamboo bookmark, an Iranian friend gave me a postcard, and an Indonesian friend gave me a small pendant. These are such light yet heavy gifts!
09.20 — Lectures & Closing
In the morning, there were lectures given by foreign experts and experts from the National Astronomical Observatories of China (NAOC). Comparing the two, the difference was obvious. The foreign experts’ lecture files were vivid and engaging, and their explanations were calm and fluent; the NAOC lectures were basically all text, and the content was mostly read directly from the slides...
Lunch that day was very special; we went to eat "Brazilian BBQ," and we were "stuffed to the point of barely being able to walk." I think this lunch will be remembered by all the contestants.
The closing ceremony was in the afternoon, and the results were about to be announced. Everyone was anxious, feeling both worried and excited. However, the medals were not revealed at the very beginning. We first watched performances by students from schools in Miyun (diabolo, Shuilaibao, etc.), and then came the climax. Every time a name was read, our hearts skipped a beat. Finally, the answer appeared: the Chinese team won one gold, eight silvers, and one bronze (Dong Chenxing won the gold medal, Xu Yongchen won the bronze, and the rest won silvers). Everyone got a prize! The Best Theory Award went to the Polish team, and the Best Team Award went to Thailand! Congratulations to them! Congratulations to all the contestants!
This was also an unusual night, the final night.
09.21 — Return
In the morning at 8:30, I went to the airport with my Indonesian friends. On the way, a classmate from Guangdong sent me a message saying that flights to Guangdong were suspended! My heart skipped a beat: what I least wanted to happen seemed to be happening! It turned out that there had been heavy rain in Guangdong these past few days, and I was worried about what might happen to the flight. I immediately called Capital Airport and Southern Airlines to inquire. After learning that the flight was normal, my heart calmed down a bit.
The friends in the same car as me were all going to T3, while I happened to be at T2, so I had to get off first. Fortunately, everything went smoothly. After waiting at the airport for more than two hours (I arrived two hours early), the plane was not delayed. I roughly repeated the journey I took when I came: plane — airport express bus (to Zhaoqing) — Zhaoqing express bus (to home). The difference was that this time I didn’t get home until eleven o’clock, because some very wonderful things happened in between...
Please include the original address when reposting: https://kexue.fm/archives/931
For more details on reproduction, please refer to: Scientific Space FAQ