Danish ambassador Friis Arne Petersen (middle) poses for a photo with young Chinese visitors on Danish embassy Open Day in Beijing, May 15, 2011. [Photo: Youth.cn]
The Danish embassy is bustling with hustle and excitement as it opens on Sunday to more than 1,500 young Chinese visitors, arguably the biggest event of the EU Embassy Open Days program since it kicked off on 6 May for 2011 EU-China Year of Youth.
Music beat is grooving up across the embassy compound, making the Open Day full of inspiration.
To outline an up-to-date Danish image beyond Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tales, the embassy gives an opportunity for ten Danish homegrown brands, including Copenhagen Fur, Pilgrim, Lego and Carlsberg, to meet with the young Chinese. Each brand gets an exhibition stand to display their products and brand ideas on the lawn where visitors also get to enjoy Danish food and beer.
Embassy Open Days - a good idea for both
Nearly 4,500 people signed up to apply to join the event on the application page on weibo.com, one of China’s leading micro-blog communities, during the week ahead of the Danish Embassy Open Day. Finally, 1000 of them get the chance to take part.
The Danish embassy opens to Chinese public on May 15 in Beijng as part of the Embassy Open Days program of 2011 EU-China Year of Youth. [Photo: Youth.cn]
"I'm so delighted to see so many new faces here at the Danish embassy in Beijing. As an ambassador, you cannot dream of anything better than seeing so many new faces at your embassy," said Friis Arne Petersen, the Danish ambassador to China, in his welcome speech. Following his speech is an haute couture fur fashion show, the highlight of the day.
"It's very important for us embassies here in China to open our houses and do an extra effort to have this message understood," the ambassador commented on the Open Day event, "I think by having so many young Chinese come here to the Danish embassy, we feel that we get a better and more honest conversation, and they understand that we're really interested in having this."
The haute couture fur fashion show at the Danish embassy Open Day, May 15, 2011. [Photo: Youth.cn]
Sino-Danish Exchange Moving Forward
"We try to attract as many Chinese students to come to Denmark to study and we see a big growth in the number of Danes who want to come to China to study," Mr Petersen told Youth.cn reporter about the latest trends in Sino-Dane exchanges, "we're making a Sino-Dane university centre in Beijing next year, we never had a university centre between Denmark and China before."
"We also try to learn Chinese at the university level, the high school level and even in primary schools. More Danes than ever before are trying to learn Mandarin. Language is still a barrier and hindrance for a full cooperation. We also see that many Chinese want to come to Europe and to my country, we are really happy for that." he added.
(reporting by Ma Ting)
