WITH the arrival of another hot summer, college graduates were making preparations for their new life. Some would pursue their postgraduate study and some would find jobs. But Zhang Jianfeng, a graduate from the Medical College of Tongji University, was waiting to depart.

She will go to a remote town in Southwest China's Yunnan Province where she will serve as a volunteer doctor for a whole year.

Like Zhang, 765 graduates from Shanghai will head off into China's west to work for one or two years, leaving at the end of June.

Launched by the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League of China and the Ministry of Education last June, the "Go West" programme aims to encourage college students to serve in the impoverished western regions voluntarily.

Ready for bitterness

Having never been to the west before, Zhang said that she had prepared herself to meet unexpected difficulties. Apart from the necessary clothes, Zhang was going to take books and music CDs with her. "I do not fear a simple and poor life, but I cannot bear days without any mental pursuit," Zhang said.

Born in the 1980s when China began carrying out its opening-up policy, Zhang was born into a relatively prosperous family.

Zhang's parents, however, deeply influenced by what they had experienced in 1960s and 1970s - a turbulent period for those who were brought up after China's Liberation in 1949 - had always done their best to give their only daughter more than they had themselves.

They did not want their daughter to lead the bitter lives they had lived. "But I am eager to chiku (taste bitterness)," Zhang said.

"To be honest, my ability to adjust to new circumstances is not very good," she said. In spite of growing up in favourable circumstance, Zhang had still felt helpless and frustrated after leaving her parents and beginning her independent college life.

Before applying to be a volunteer in the west, Zhang worked in a suburban hospital as an intern for one year.

Having got used to a carefree and comfortable urban life, days without TV or a library were hard for Zhang. "I had to live and study in a dull environment short of mental stimulation and I did not know how to apply what I had learnt in books to clinical practice," she said.

Mixed motives

In those days, she realized that it was necessary to learn how to endure loneliness. She tried to analyze herself to adjust to her psychological situation.

"Now, I would like to go to a place far away from material pursuits to experience the spirit of selflessness," she said.

"We used to worry that some students lacked a clear goal when they applied to be volunteers," said Chen Hua from the West Volunteer Project Management Office of Tongji University.

Many students had no experience of living in the west. It was not the volunteer spirit that attracted them to go to west, but rather curiosity mixed with attraction for the west's wonderful natural landscapes.

In addition, some students worried about finding jobs after their graduation. Therefore, they decided to go west in order to escape the employment pressures.

In Chen's eyes, these students were not suitable to be volunteers. After all, being a volunteer was meant to be a way to serve the west. "We encourage students to go there, but first of all, they should organize their lives carefully when they decide to go and serve in the west," Chen said.

What had made Chen and her colleagues delighted - and even a little surprised - was that college graduates who applied to go to the west were becoming more and more rational about it.

This year, eight graduates from Tongji University had volunteered to go to the west and some of them had even received job offers before they presented their applications to head out to the west. Zhang was such a case.

"I am not sure whether the hospital which planned to employ me will give me a second chance after I return from the west," Zhang said. "But I am sure that I will be more confident after a year's experience working in the west."

Volunteer spirit

"To be volunteers has become a 'fashion' in this era," said Yu Hai, a sociologist from Fudan University.

But no matter in which era, young people need enough moral courage to fulfill the volunteer spirit. Today, people's idea of volunteering has been infused with the new spirit of the time.

According to Yu, a period of special experience could teach people a lot. Today's young people should improve their sense of responsibility.

In western regions where people need their help, college graduates could strengthen their capabilities and independence. "It is an interactive process through which they have to learn to be responsible for themselves and for others," Yu said.

More importantly, the "Go West" programme has been carried out in China as a practical strategy to promote the development of the west, since for a long time, there has existed a huge disparity between China's eastern and western regions.

"In China's developed eastern regions, a surplus of talented people has appeared. While in the western regions, there is a serious shortage of such people," Yu said.

China's central government had never desisted in its efforts to support the development of the west. Large amounts of intellectual and financial support were being given to support the western regions.

"But in past years, going to west was - to a certain degree - a response to the political call of our country," Yu said.

Today, to be a volunteer to the west can be better combined with young people's overall life plans, Chen suggested. "Previously, we over-emphasized the collective spirit and ignored individual values. Actually, they are not in contradiction," she said.

Zhou Ping, another west volunteer from Tongji University, said that the healthy smiles to be seen on the face of urban children often reminded her of children living in her hometown, which was located in a small town in the Xiangxi Autonomous Prefecture of Central China's Hunan Province.

"Children in cities have many options for their future, but children in my hometown have to live in a much more closed environment. If they can be given a little hope, they will know a little more about this world," she said.