From Russia with Love - Friendship continues to grow 16 years on

Article submitted by alumni

The HKU Russia study trip in summer 2000 is still the best trip of my life.

The trip, "Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia / The University of Hong Kong Summer Russian Studies Programme 2000", was organised by the HKU Worldwide Student Exchange Programme of the Registry. During the trip, I learned a lot about Russia, experienced the Russian culture first-hand, and had unforgettable memories with both Hong Kong students and Russian students. Most importantly, I made many lifelong friends.

At our regular reunions, we talk about our careers, personal development, with laughter and tears along the journey of life. We witnessed each other growing from youthful students into adults with successful careers.

Having a reunion outside of Hong Kong is always an item on our to-do list. As a stepping stone, we took a hike together on Lamma Island in 2006. In 2009, we attended the first wedding in our group when Denise Leung married Patrick Leung (BEng(MechEng) 2001). It was a joyous and touching occasion. Our study trip mate Dominic Tang even played the piano to entertain the guests during the wedding reception!

For many years, we always wanted to travel together again as a celebration of our friendship. In 2011, we finally managed to get a week off work to go hiking in Huangshan in Mainland China. We laughed a lot while hiking up and down the picturesque mountains. We even got up at 4 am to try to watch the sunrise, but we somehow missed the chance, possibly due to waiting for the sunrise in the wrong location!

In early August 2015, six of us met up again, and we realised that we have known each other for 15 years. The unforgettable memories of us walking along the streets of St Petersburg came flooding back,  like it happened only yesterday.