NANJING, June 13 (Xinhua) -- Learning to dive can be somewhat expensive, but students at a university in east China's Jiangsu Province can access the underwater sport for free.
With a total of 16 lessons in one semester, Jiangsu University of Science and Technology, located in the city of Zhenjiang, has opened a diving class to boost its physical education. It is also the first university in Jiangsu to offer such a course.
"Diving is a little bit mysterious in China and students need to learn a lot of theory," said Li Ming who teaches diving at the university, noting that before entering the water, students must first learn to swim.
The university provides each student of the class with a complete set of diving equipment which costs more than 3,000 yuan (about 445 U.S. dollars). Students are currently trained in a two-meter-deep open-air swimming pool.
"Under the premise of safety precautions, we plan to teach diving in an on-campus lake after students master some basic diving skills," Li said. "The assessment of the course will include underwater operations like assembling diving equipment."
"It's pretty cool to put on the diving suit, and swimming underwater is just amazing," said Zhang Jiayi, a junior student who has selected the course.
"I've never experienced diving before, and I didn't expect to have the chance to learn the sport so systematically in the university," she said, adding that the university also offers courses like darts and kayaking.
More and more universities in China have attempted to offer various refreshing sports courses such as dragon boat racing, wrestling and martial arts, so as to enhance students' interest in sports and improve their physical fitness. ■
