Labor class held to celebrate Harvest Festival

Around 100 students of Shanghai Jiao Tong University took a special class on wine brewing and vegetable fermenting on Wednesday to mark the fourth Chinese Farmers' Harvest Festival, which falls on Autumn Equinox on Thursday.

The class is part of an ongoing labor education program involving students of the School of Agriculture and Biology. Earlier in March, the students planted seeds during the Spring Equinox before tending to them in the summer and harvesting them in the autumn.

During the class on Wednesday, students listened to lectures by Song Shiren, advisor to the university's wine culture student club, and Wu Yan, the instructor for the food processing course, before they were divided into two teams to process their harvests.

Later this year in winter, bottles of wines and jars of pickled vegetables will be featured in a special exhibition.

Li Saiya, a student of the class of 2020, said the program has given him a chance to work in the fields and experience the work of a farmer. "It's a valuable lesson in life," he said.

The university said this labor practicum is a pilot program that will be expanded to include more students.