On July 8, 2013, the first day of Cuiying Honors College’s first summer school, an inauguration meeting was held. Executive Dean Professor Long Ruijun required all students to cherish their valuable learning opportunities, take advantage of high-quality teaching resources provided by the college, go all out, gain experience, develop perseverance, study hard, and to strive to lay a solid foundation for their dream careers through these intensive eight weeks of English language study and TOEFL preparation during the summer school. The opening ceremony was officiated by Cuiying Honors College’s CPC Secretary, Dr. Du Shengyi, with the teachers, support team and students in attendance.

In contrast to Lanzhou University’s existing two semester model, Cuiying Honors College began to implement three semesters starting from September 2012: the Fall Semester (17 weeks), Spring Semester (17 weeks) and an eight week summer school. This was one of the new strategies implemented to build a first-class international college with the aims of freeing students to attend other international summer schools, allowing visiting scholars to give lectures at Cuiying Honors College in their own summer vacations, and to permit joint summer schools with partner institutions.