Part of the office compound of The Delegation of the European Union to China
As part of the 2011 E.U.-China Year of Youth, the Delegation of the European Union along with the embassies of many E.U. Member States will open the doors of their embassies and engage young Chinese and Europeans in a number of interactive and informative events.
The month-long program involves a wide range of activities, including lectures, visits of embassies' offices and ambassadors' residences, cultural performances, games, quizzes and lots more. All this will take place each day in a different European Union Embassy across Beijing from May 6 to June 3.
The E.U. Open Days will kick off at the Delegation of the European Union on Friday, May 6 to celebrate the 36th Anniversary of formal E.U.-China Diplomatic Relations.
The main purpose of the E.U. Open Days is to strengthen young people's understanding and knowledge of the European Union, its Member States and EU-China relations, as well as to foster friendship and offer further occasions for people-to-people exchanges between European and Chinese youth.
While many of the open days are by invitation only, the open days of the embassies of Denmark, Italy and Poland will be open to the general public.
On May 15, 2011, the Embassy of Denmark will showcase two exhibitions on fairy tales and bicycle culture. The young participants will have the unique opportunity of visiting the Danish Ambassador's residence. Traditional food will be offered by Danish butchers.
On May 16, 2011, the Embassy of Poland will start in the morning with a welcome message by the Polish Ambassador, which will be followed by performances of the Warsaw University Dance Ensemble "Warszawianka," a tour of the Embassy building, Polish language lessons, quizzes, lucky draw and lots more.
On June 3, 2011, the Embassy of Italy will have two screenings of the Italian movie "Happy Family (2010)" by the famous director Gabriele Salvatores with Chinese and Italian subtitles at the Italian Cultural Centre.
2011 was first designated the "Year of Youth" by European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao at the 12th E.U.-China Summit in Nanjing at the end of 2009. The framework includes a number of flagship events in the European Union and China designed to foster intercultural dialogue, mutual understanding and cooperation. It hopes to promote a platform for young people from Europe and China to meet and exchange ideas. Coinciding with the 2011 European Year of Volunteering initiative, there are also a number of voluntary activities promoting regular exchanges on youth-related issues.
The E.U.-China Year of Youth was officially launched in January of this year in Brussels and in February in Beijing.
