Singing for the motherland at Kunming Nie-er Music Square, making pinwheels at Shicui Folk Art Park, and finding “fantastic animals” at Kunming Zoo. The Xiamen Airlines SDGs City Exploration Competition kicked off in Kunming, Yunnan province on November 11. Participants raced to different sites to complete tasks and earn points, joining hands with Xiamen Airlines to “concretize” sustainable development and share the boundless joy of promoting the realization of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
As autumn transitions to winter, the Xiamen Airlines SDGs City Exploration Competition was held in Kunming, a gateway city that connects Guizhou-Guangxi to the coast in the east, passes through Sichuan and Chongqing into the central plains in the north, reaches Thailand and Cambodia via Vietnam and Laos in the south, and connects Myanmar, India and Pakistan in the west. It’s a nice breezy sunny day, and leaders and guests from the Working Committee of the Partnership for UN SDG Action 35553, the Yunnan Youth Development Foundation, and the Yao Foundation came to the scene and cheered for participants.
The bustling and vibrant Nanping Pedestrian Street in Wuhua District is the main venue for the Xiamen Airlines SDGs City Exploration Competition in Kunming, where the start line arch featuring locally specific patterns of Yunnan was quite eye-catching in front of Zhongai Archway, one of the three major archways in Kunming. The competition featured three categories: adult, parent-child, and friends and family, attracting nearly 1,000 participants. “I specifically flew in from Chongqing,” said a participant surnamed Zhang, who participated in the event’s Chongqing leg three years ago and benefited a lot from it. “This time, the Kunming leg chooses many popular scenic spots and landmarks, and it’s so much fun taking part in the competition together.”
During the event, participants consciously chose green transportation and headed for 15 sites, including Qianwang Street, Yunnan Victory Memorial Hall of Anti-Japanese War, and Wuhua Fire Brigade. They completed tasks, earned points, and learned about the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, including “No Poverty,” “Zero Hunger,” and “Good Health and Well-Being.”
“Today, my son learned how to use a fire extinguisher and also learned escape techniques such as rope knot tying. This event is really “banzha” (Kunming dialect, meaning excellent), and it conveys a lot of useful knowledge.” said a participant surnamed Wang, who brought her seven-year-old son to participate in the “Escape and Rescue Classroom” at the Wuhua Fire Brigade. At the Golden Horse and Jade Rooster Archways site, a competitor whose family name is Li, with the help of his daughter, drew a public welfare picture with the theme of “No Poverty.” “Young people are really creative,” he marveled, adding that the event opened a window, allowing him to see the new momentum of his hometown as a native Kunming resident.
Yunnan is a microcosm of the multi-ethnic family of China and it is also a well-deserved treasure trove of biodiversity, comparable to tropical rainforests in Brazil and the African savannas. In October 2021, the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP 15) – Part One was held in Kunming, Yunnan. In August 2022, Xiamen Airlines signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement with Yunnan Province. As one of the important projects to strengthen cultural and tourism cooperation and promote ecological protection within the agreement, the Xiamen Airlines SDGs City Exploration Competition was held in Kunming on this year’s “Double Eleven” day.
Xiamen Airlines is the world’s first airline to support the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and has carried out a series of practices to help achieve these goals. The Xiamen Airlines SDGs City Exploration Competition is currently the only SDGs-themed public welfare event IP. With strong support from partners such as the China Youth Development Foundation, the Yao Foundation, and the China Green Foundation, the event has been held in Xiamen, Changsha, Chongqing, Fuzhou, and Tianjin since 2019, and has caused a sensation wherever it goes. It also has a huge impact online, with related topics exceeding 150 million views. In the future, the Xiamen Airlines SDGs City Exploration Competition will land in more cities, encouraging more people to practice sustainable development and safeguard our planet together. (Correspondent: Gao Yingfa)