The "Past and Present Lives" of Beidaihe Vacation

The history of summer vacation activities for experts in Beidaihe began in July 1987.

On July 24, 1987, 14 middle-aged science and technology experts from the national scientific community who were on vacation with their loved ones in Beidaihe met Deng Xiaoping. Among them were Hu Renyu, who participated in the development of China's first atomic and hydrogen bombs, Li Guilian, a vegetable expert at the Guizhou Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and Wang Demin, who was later elected as one of the first academicians of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and the then Chief Engineer of Daqing Petroleum Administration.

The first group of experts went on vacation to Beidaihe the following year. The Central Organization Department reported to the Party Central Committee that many experts had an excessive workload and had been operating at an overload for a long time. The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China attaches great importance to this situation, and the Organization Department of the Central Committee has decided to establish a system for organizing experts to take medical leave with their spouses.

In the 10 years after 1988, the Organization Department of the Central Committee organized 8 expert vacations, but the locations for expert vacations were not limited to Beidaihe.

In September 1995, academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and their spouses went on vacation to the revolutionary old area of Jinggangshan. In July 1997, two years later, in addition to some academicians from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering, experts from the social science community were also invited by the Organization Department of the Central Committee. They went on vacation to Zhejiang Province with their spouses. It was not until 1998 that the news of the Central Organization Department inviting experts to take a vacation in Beidaihe reappeared in official reports.

In 2001, the 10th Five Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development elevated the issue of talent to the national strategic level for the first time. According to reports from Xinhua News Agency over the years, this year marked the beginning of tracing and statistics on the expert vacation system in Beidaihe.

In December 2003, the central government held its first national conference on talent work. In the same year, the Central Talent Work Coordination Group was established, with its office located in the Talent Work Bureau of the Organization Department of the Central Committee. In the Talent Work Bureau, there is also a specialized department in charge of experts taking summer vacation, which is a normalized work, responsible for contacting experts to provide assistance to the western region.

In the summer of 2006, among the 51 agricultural technology experts and practical talents in rural areas who were on vacation in Beidaihe organized by the Organization Department of the Central Committee, Lu Guoliang, who was then the secretary of the Hsinchu Village Branch in Xiangshui Township, Xiangtan County, Hunan Province, was walking on the ground when he received a phone call from the Organization Department of the County Committee. "I never thought I would have the opportunity to take a vacation with academicians and experts.".

Six years later, Xu Yunling, a teacher at the Mazhuang teaching point of the Sunzhuang Village Committee in Magutian Town, Miyang County, Henan Province, also received a notice to go to Beidaihe. The news spread from Zhumadian in Henan Province to the county, then to the town, and finally to herself.

Which experts can go on vacation to Beidaihe? It is understood that according to the adjustment of the central talent work focus, the themes and priorities vary each year.

In 2003, among the 100 invited experts, many were medical experts on the front line of fighting against SARS and leaders of the national science and technology research group for the prevention and control of SARS. In 2006, after the issuance of the No. 1 central document, the new rural construction was launched, and the experts invited that year were mainly agricultural science and technology experts and rural practical talents. On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China in 2009, we invited 60 representatives of innovative and entrepreneurial talents from various periods and fields since the founding of the People's Republic of China. 2011 marks the 90th anniversary of the founding of the CPC. The Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee specially invited 90 outstanding party members and talents, and the location was changed to Jinggangshan.

The theme of the 2023 holiday activity was determined to be "committed to self-reliance in high-level science and technology, and to the great practice of Chinese path to modernization", and the experts who came to the holiday were the representatives of outstanding talents in the frontier fields of science and technology in China.

Experts have stated that the Beidaihe vacation system reflects the care and love of the central leadership for talents, experts, and especially senior intellectuals, and is a political stance.