From May 25 to 27, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao conducted investigations in Hunan province. He highly affirmed the achievements Yuelu Academy has made in cultural inheritance and talents cultivation, and urged Hunan to carry forward the good tradition of greatly valuing education and accelerate the pace of developing a strong province of education.
Yuelu Academy, founded in the year 976 AD, was officially named Hunan University in 1926. In the almost one thousand years of development, it remains at the forefront of the age, serving as a significant base for diffusion of different social thoughts in different periods with varied academic backgrounds.
On June 13 of 2009, Premier Wen made a special trip to Hunan University. He delivered a speech to thousands of students, urging them to inherit the far-reaching and time-honored traditions of the university and ponder on what they should do “for the time being, at the very place, and in their entire life”.
Now, three years later, Premier Wen visited the province again. In his speech, he spoke highly of the important role and outstanding contributions of this One-Thousand-Year-Old Academy in history.
Wen’s speech fully demonstrates the state’s stress on the strategy of developing the country by relying on science and education, recognition of Hunan’s strategy of developing a culturally powerful province, and hope that Yuelu Academy will further promote traditions and innovative development.