Established in November 1985, Guilin Institute of Tourism (GIT) is situated in Guilin, a place known as “with the best landscape under heaven”. As one of the three tourism institutions of higher learning in China, it serves as an important training base in the central and southwest regions of China designated by the State Administration of Tourism. Since its establishment, GIT has been substantially developing into a comprehensive institution of higher learning. At the end of the year 2000, the on-campus students were 4370, including the full-time students studying at the level of three years higher vocational courses, and the students enrolled in distance learning, self-learning for state recognized certificates, short-term training courses, qualification courses, etc.. GIT has enrolled students from 28 provinces all over China. In the past 19 years, it has trained a great deal of tourist talents for the country as well as for the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, it has trained 41,900 personnel as tour guides, hotel staff, senior management of tour services and hotels.\#I[&~S=4gbx/q-w3
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The curricula offered by GIT have been mainly focused on tourism industry and relevant fields, it now has 4 departments and 2 divisions offering 21 specialties, among which are tourism management, tourism resources development and management, tourism e-business, hotel management and cuisines, etc... All the specialties offered by GIT are market-oriented and meet the needs of the society. The Ministry of Education approved the specialty of hotel management of GIT as a model specialty at the state level for higher vocational education in 2000. The other 3 specialties, namely tourism English, Interior Art Design /Tourism Arts & crafts Design, Guide Service and Management, are being assessed to be the model specialties at the provincial level for higher vocational education by Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. The specialties of Interior Art Design and Environmental Art Design present their uniqueness and special features among the colleges and universities in the whole country. In 2003, GIT began to offer 5 new specialties, Tourism Performance and Planning, Tourism Conference & Exhibition Planning and Management, International Secretary, Animation Art Design, and Out-bound Tour Leader. Besides, GIT jointly offered 4-years undergraduate courses with some other universities.?Y6we^KLIR@*
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GIT has a set of comprehensive teaching facilities and an experienced faculty. It has its own in-campus network connected to the Internet, a multifunctional conference hall, multifunctional classrooms, etc. It has also set up a simulated tour Guide laboratory that is one of the best in the whole country, simulated travel service centers, hotels, bars and restaurants, tourism art & crafts design laboratories, studios for ornament & advertisement computer design. Its library possesses more than 180,000 volumes of paper books and 4212 e-books. Currently GIT boasts the faculty of its own characteristics: of which over 40% are dual-master teachers rich both in their academic theories and in their practical experience of tourism, over 25% are associate professors and professors, and over 15% are with Master degrees or above.u\Q]8R42M,
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Pursuing new education philosophy, GIT has developed a teaching principle that the class hours for basic theories should be guaranteed, the students’ ability in English, the computer literacy should be enhanced, and teaching and practice should be appropriately combined together. Aiming at fostering students with great versatility and wide adaptability, GIT seeks after a set of modular teaching programs fit for its own mode and attaches great importance to the teaching approach of combining theory with practice to facilitate students to develop their practical skills and their integrated quality of competitiveness. The achievements of the students bear witness of the success of this education strategy: Liu Hao, a student from the Foreign Languages Department, won first prize in international section in Tour Guides Competition sponsored by Guilin Administration of Tourism in October 2001, Zhang Li, a student from Management Department, in November 2001 won third prize in The “Third-sister Liu” Tourism Image Ambassador Competition, which was jointly sponsored by the Guilin Municipal Government, Administration of Tourism of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and the Administration of Films & TV Program of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, and later on, in February 2002 she also won second prize in the First National Advertisement Models Competition. In 2004, GIT’s baseball team won the second prize in the National College Students Baseball Championship.x0S1#7Xnolt_HU.ED
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Graduates from GIT are very popular in job markets. The statistics by the tracking investigation show that of the graduates working in three-star hotels or restaurants in tourism industry, 30% of them are in charge of a department, 30% are managers of minor departments, 10% are managers of major departments, 10% hold responsibilities at the supervisors level, and 5% are deputy general managers. It is generally acknowledged that graduates from institutions of higher learning are facing a serious employment situation, nevertheless, the graduates from GIT enjoy great popularity, and particularly from 1999 to 2004, the rate of employment of the graduates from GIT was close to 100%.h5zVt||u9\p:n@W(Wqf#
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GIT takes an active part in scientific research and development. It has several research institutes such as the Guangxi Tourism Scientific Research Institute, the Guangxi Tourism Commodity Research Institute and the Tour Guide and Tour Culture Research Institute, etc... These research institutes have achieved quite a few outstanding findings and achievements. The Journal of Guilin Institute of Tourism, published in 1998, has enjoyed a high prestige as a platform for tourism scientific research in the field of domestic tourism theory. The scientific researches of GIT’s faculty have proved to be abundant and fruitful focusing on the aspect of tour service, tourism education, and education of higher learning. GIT undertakes many state and provincial scientific research projects. The works of the teachers and students of the Arts & Crafts Department have won many times the national and provincial awards for their excellence. The tourism art work “Water-moon of Elephant Hill”, a set of tea pot and cups made by professor Shuai Ligong, won silver prize in the First Tourism Arts & Crafts Products Competition.a=@v6BP`0rs
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GIT takes an active part in international academic exchanges. It has invited foreign teachers to be appointed to give lectures from England, Australia, the United States, New Zealand and Japan, and has been conducting long-term and close cooperation with Ecole Hoteliere de Lausanne of Switzerland, Huntingdon University, Oklahoma State University , British International Hotel University, Griffith University, Canada Southern Alberta Institute Of Technology, Vietnam Hanoi Tourism College, Saigon School Of Hotel And Tourism，etc.. Such partnerships have opened up channels for joint efforts in running schools by a mode of “2+2” or “2+3”, the mode that enables GIT students to have another two-years further study at co-operative learning institutes after two or three years study at GIT and obtain two diplomas after graduation.}_3j,2l!?yx
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