I have been chosen to be a member of the Young Astronaut Training Camp 2023. This camp has brought me amazing and exciting experiences and there were a lot of my "first-time" experiences, like first-time travelling abroad and first-time flying.

We have visited places where people dare not go, like the Headquarter of The National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Leng Hu Mars Camp. These amazing things encountered as well the knowledge gained made me excited and explore the world a lot. The thing that had most impressed me was the Mogao Caves. There were more than 700 grottoes and there were a lot of statues and wall paintings in those grottoes. Their beauty and charm shocked me. 

The most interesting place in this camp was the Mars Camp, resembling the environment similar to Mars. First, we had to ride on coach for 8 hours to get there. Then we dwelled in our own small "Mars Capsule" and slept there overnight. After that, we learnt about many things about Mars, like the rocks, its history. Then, we walked for over 45 minutes and won treasure hunts for two boxes of scarce resources on Mars - water. After that, we had our own Mars solar rovers built and test run under the Sun. They could really run very fast. Someone have even modified theirs by reducing weight and/or adding solar panels/motors to make them even run faster and faster. The last part was the new friends in this camp. I have met many participants there making really good friends. Their ages are from Secondary 2 to 6, including all the age groups in this camp.

By the end of the Camp, I had a very fulfilling 8-day journey in the Mainland. I would definitely recommend my friends to join the program next years. Also, I hope that I can learn more about astronomy and Mars in the future. That concluded, last but not least, my experiences in this fantastic camp.