The Education Bureau held the learning outcomes sharing session of the "Salute to the National Flag" Beijing Visit Delegation at Kowloon Technical School today, promoting the outcomes of the activity among more young people and various sectors of the society.

About 250 student representatives of the delegation from tertiary institutions, secondary and primary schools shared their learning experiences during the five-day visit to Beijing.

Speaking at the session, Chief Secretary Chan Kwok-ki described the delegation as a high-level "walking classroom", which enabled students to feel for themselves the national dignity represented by the national flag and the national anthem through the solemn flag-raising ceremony at Tiananmen Square.

He said that this deepened their understanding of the symbolic meaning of the national flag, and strengthened their sense of national identity and patriotism.

Mr Chan said that students experienced at first hand our country's journey from arduous struggle to the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation from the country's millennia-old cultural heritage to the development achievements of the new era.

He added that the delegation was received in person by Member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Vice Premier of the State Council Ding Xuexiang, and by the Director of the Hong Kong and Macao Work Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council Xia Baolong at the Great Hall of the People.

“Mr Ding conveyed the cordial remarks and exhortations of President Xi and the Central Government to the young people from Hong Kong and Macao, enabling students to feel the care and expectations of the Central Authorities for Hong Kong and Macao young people, and to understand more deeply the important meaning carried by the national flag,” Mr Chan said.

He emphasised that patriotic education has all along been a top priority of the work of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government. Hong Kong's First Five-Year Plan and the 2026 Policy Address also list the promotion of patriotic education as a key task.

He noted that today's learning outcomes sharing session aims to pass on more widely and further what the students learned in Beijing, so that more young people may gain a deeper understanding of the important meaning of the national flag and feel more deeply our country's care and concern for young people.

He said the Government will continue to join hands with various sectors of the society and, through rich and diverse means, enable young people to build a firm sense of national identity, national confidence and a sense of responsibility through first-hand experience.

Today's sharing session began with a flag-raising ceremony. A joint team formed by flag-raising teams of the Association of Hong Kong Flag-guards and the Hong Kong Army Cadets Association, drawing on the experience of exchanges and interaction in Beijing with the People's Liberation Army Ceremonial Escort Battalion, conducted a solemn flag-raising ceremony. Booths were also set up at the session for members of the delegation to introduce their learning experience in Beijing.

Around 1,200 flag-raising team representatives, teachers, students and youth group representatives from Hong Kong and Macao joined the delegation’s thematic activity in Beijing from September 18 to 22.