New students at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University enjoyed some fun during induction week by taking part in the XJTLU Challenge.

The XJTLU Challenge was a week-long competition organised for all new students, which aimed to introduce new students to the University, encouraging them to have fun and make friends in the process.

Teams of students were required to complete a range of tasks, including a scavenger hunt around the XJTLU campus, the surrounding Higher Education Town and even further into Suzhou, a treasure hunt that required teams to find little yellow ducks based on cryptic clues, and a photo challenge that required teams to take three to four group photos each day of different, specific arrangements.

Over 120 teams registered for the competition and each team consisted of three to four members.

The team DeVotion, comprised of masters students Yu Sun, Tingting Meng, Hu Xie and Siyu Li (pictured below), won first place.

Yu Sun, captain of the team who is studying MSc Management at XJTLU, said that the challenge helped the team get familiar with the campus environment and that they made friends with other students and staff who helped them during the tasks.

“We found four convenience stores on the XJTLU campus and all five yellow ducks as required. We are very excited about winning the game and we finished the tasks through team work,” he said.

Yu finished his undergraduate study at North China Institute of Science and Technology and he has found that XJTLU has a very “international and open campus environment” with a rich range of student activities.

“I can also feel the pressure to study hard at this University, where all courses are delivered in English,” he added.

Ruyi Chen, a Year One student from International Business School Suzhou at XJTLU and captain of the second-prize team Mission Not Impossible, expressed her excitement at taking part in the competition, saying: “During the last awesome week I really had a fabulous time with my teammates. We really appreciated the University organising this game. It’s not only super interesting, but also helps us become really familiar with the campus.”