Summary of the 1998 Beida Alumni Annual Picnic

Dear Beida Alumni:

    For those alumni who did not show up at last Sunday's picnic due to
the big thunderstorm, you might wonder how the picnic was going. Well,
it was actually very successful filled with a lot of fun.

How many attendees?
    In spite of the big storm, 101 alumni and their family
members/friends showed up including 7 from the Consulate General in
Houston (3 Beida alumni Vice Consul General Jiang Yuan Song (and wife)
, Consul He Bin, and Vice Consul Wang Qing Jun. Consuls Duan, Yao, and
Zhao). About 25 kids. Only four left earlier. As remarked at the picnic
by Vice consul General Jiang Yuan Song in his humorous speech: "I came
to the alumni picnic last year, it was raining. I come this time, it is a
storm again. What does this mean? It means that our Beida Alumni can
always pass the toughest test of Bao4 Feng1 Yu3 (thunderstorm)".

Exercises/Game Activities:
    The activities were mainly held inside the Pavilion. When it was
raining, alumni were playing cards, ma2 jiang4, chatting. In the center
of the Pavilion, there was a dancing program going: first was the group
dancing contest by adults, then by children. Actually all the children
participating in the contest got awarded with candies and pencils. After
that, the kids had an exciting game: each time, two kids of similar
age were walking while holding the table tennis bat to keep the Ping
Pong Balls on the bat from falling down. This game generated loud
laughing and applause from the surrounding adults watching the game.
    When the rain stopped, alumni went outside of the Pavilion and had
an exciting tug-of-war (Ba2 He2) contest. Alumni were divided into two
teams: those born south of Chang2 Jiang1 (Yangtze) River made
the Southern Team, and those born north of Yangtze River formed the
Northern Team. Many kids also joined their parents to help. After
adjusting the number of people on both sides, the tug-of-war began.
Everyone in the team used his/her largest physical strength to pull the
rope. You can imagine how exciting and heating up this game was, and how
loud the cheering was.
The Northern Team was defeated by the Southern Team with a score of 1:2.

    The kids also played other games like three-person-walk outside the
Pavilion.

Prize Drawing:
    We had prize drawing three times at the picnic: the prizes include
25 Beida Centennial Celebration (BCC) T-shirts, 5 BCC mugs, 5 24-K
gold plated BCC bookmarks, lots of bags of unfinished fruits and
drinks, and even lunch boxes.
    Consul Duan Zhong brought with him 48 boxes Chinese Tee from the
consulate General in Houston as prizes to our Beida Alumni. Each
families attending the picnic got a free tea box.
    At the end, each picnic attendee got a free 24-K plated BCC key
chain.
    Alumni went back home with lots of prizes---Man3 Zai4 Er2 Gui1!!!!

Other Things:
    We made 70 copies of the most recent Alumni directory brochures
(edited by Yong Huang and Gan Liang) and distributed at the picnic.
    We made 70 prints of the group picture of alumni (including over
100 alumni) at the 5/2 Peking University Centennial Celebration Party
(PUCCP) and distributed to the participating alumni.
    We made some posters of the PUCCP photos and showed them at the
picnic.
    The lunch was ordered from restaurants.

Nice Ending:
    The picnic ended at about 4:00 PM
    Near the end, all the picnic participants took a group photo outside
the pavilion. At the end, all alumni sang "The Song of Graduation".

Special Thanks to the following Alumni:

    Chengjie Liu, Lin Shao, Tianyan Niu, Chun Li, Dacheng He, Weijun
Xiong, Baorong Cai, Jennifer (Mingjuan) Cui, Chen Ding for phone
contacting alumni.
    Yong Huang for editing the Alumni Directory.
    Baolong Cai for transporting the lunch from Chinatown to picnic.
    Weijun Xiong, Chengjie Liu, and Xiaomin Tang for transporting the
drinks, fruits, snacks etc. to the picnic.
    Shuyu Song for organizing and teaching group dancing.
    Lin Shao, Yuan Hu, Cong Wang, and Meng Wang for helping the
registration and distributing Alumni Directory and Photos.
    Jennifer Cui and Zhenglong Gu for helping the word puzzle and
photography posters.
    Beida Alumni Association (BAA) Board members Chengbin Peng, Yina
Shi, Keshan Zou, Liguang Gu, and Gan Liang for organizing this picnic.
And finally, the support from all of the family members of alumni.

Gan Liang
President of BAA