Design of Border Study Tour Routes: Heihe Border Study Tour Practice with the Theme of "Tracing the Origins and Rivers"

Border study tours represent a distinctive category of practical education that integrates geographical boundary awareness, cultural integration, and national security education values. Taking Tracing the Origins and Rivers – Gaining True Knowledge in a Border City, a premium border study tour route included in Heilongjiang Province’s "One Hundred Routes, One Hundred Courses" program as a case study, this paper systematically elaborates on the route’s design philosophy, resource foundations, curriculum system and implementation guarantees. Centered at the Aihui Study Tour Practical Education Camp in Heihe City, the route links seven core sites: the Aihui–Tengchong China Population Geographic Dividing Line Theme Park, China-Russia Friendship Bridge, Overseas Chinese in Russia Memorial Hall, China-Russia Ethnic Customs Park, Aihui History Exhibition Hall, Ma Zhanshan Mansion and the Educated Youth Museum. It establishes a progressive four-dimensional research framework: "Tracing Historical Origins – Geographic Cognition – Cultural Comparison – Spiritual Inheritance". This paper focuses on analyzing the design concepts and implementation essentials of three premium courses: Dawn and Dusk Recollections – Drawing Lessons from History to Understand Rise and Fall, Biographies of Educated Youths – Overcoming Every Hardship One by One, and Seeking Common Ground While Reserving Differences – Appreciating the Charm of Exotic Customs. It also summarizes the route’s operational mechanism from the perspectives of safety assurance, teacher staffing and evaluation system, offering replicable practical references for the systematic and curriculum-based design of border study tour routes.