By Peggy Teng
Climbing up a four-storey building with only 10 seconds and shooting from tanks are both astonishing to Macao students who have rarely seen such things.
About 300 students and teachers, both from secondary schools and universities visited the barracks of the Macao Garrison of the People's Liberation Army in Zhuhai on October 12.
The activity was organized by Affociacao De Estudantes Chong Wa De Macao to make Macao people understand more about the garrison and to enhance communication between residents and soldiers.
The most exciting performance was the climbing action. Four soldiers stood in front of four buildings, with the same action, same speed, climbing up the building skillfully within 10 seconds.
The visitors then were invited to look at weapons which were advanced and heavy. It was hard to imagine the harsh lives of the soldiers who had to carry such bulky arms during their daily military drills.
Shooting practice from tanks was another performance staged by the PLA soldiers. The tanks were large with cannons mounted on the top. The soldiers demonstrated how to shoot with them. The range of fire was more than 1 km and the destruction was unbelievable.
In order to perform well on their duties, soldiers were expected to have a healthy body and strong combating skills, thus martial arts were compulsory practices for them. Their performance of martial arts exhibited a sense of strength, unity and graceful feel.
All the performances were well prepared and won applause from the young audience who gave a lot of exclamations during the show.
Most students were quite satisfied. One of the visitors, Cardo Hui, a Year 3 student of the Faculty of Business Administration of the University of Macao said, "Soldiers here are nice and tough. I enjoy my visit a lot."
Cheng I Un, a Form 1 student of Pooi To School said, "The performance is fantastic. I love the musical instrumental performance the most and the library here tells me that soldiers also have a gentle side under the tough armour."
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