Ian Clarke Budding young reporters from Dereham have joined forces with new friends in China to take part in a worldwide multi-media project telling the story of a container's trip around the globe. The students' blog site

Ian Clarke

Budding young reporters from Dereham have joined forces with new friends in China to take part in a worldwide multi-media project telling the story of a container's trip around the globe.

The Box is travelling across the world as part of a BBC initiative to explore global trade and the BBC News School Report has recruited young people to help with reporting the journey.

Evie Farnham, Sian Ridsdale, Sam Cox, Courtenay Head and Sarah King were among 10 students from Dereham Neatherd High School who were on a two-week trip to China and met The Box at Shanghai Docks.

The 1.95 kilometre-squared terminal, which is the largest in the world, is managed by a computer system to keep track of almost 40,000 containers' operations per day - approximately 28.5 million units of freight per year.

The pupils have told the story of the latest leg and children from their partner school - Nanyang Middle - have reported in Mandarin.

“The Box is here!” started the Dereham students' report. “Amidst the maze of towering blocks of containers, stacked seven containers up, and noticeable for its red and white livery, sat the BBC's container.”

They met and interviewed Frank Xu and Scott Wu, deputy general managers of NYK Logistics, an international container mega-carrier, and learned about how it is tracked across the world.

The report said: “Fortunately, the vessel didn't come under threat from pirates in the South China Sea. Nonetheless the ship is equipped with the latest technology in controlling piracy - a water cannon!”

*To read the full report visit the weblink: news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/school_report/7706469.stm.

*The school's China blog: shanghai.neatherd.org.

The students' blog site