Diplomatic Pouch: With Mike Peters

Olympic host countries cannot help celebrating long after the Games are over. The latest cheers were heard this month when UK diver Tom Daley and China's Qiu Bo met fans at Shanghai's Oriental Sports Center and shared their experience of the London 2012 Olympic Games.

British Consul General Brian Davidson hosted the event, saying, "Tom and Qiu Bo standing side-by-side illustrates the depth and level of people-to-people exchanges between China and the UK, and is a great opportunity to celebrate the successes of Chinese and British athletes at London 2012."

Daley, 18, won the bronze medal in the London Games' 10-meter platform dive, while Qiu from Sichuan came home with the silver medal in the same event.

"I always love coming to China as the people and fans are always so welcoming and such great fun," Daley said. "I'll probably be back several times in 2013 to compete and I can't wait."

Danish Ambassador to China Friis Arne Petersen was in Hangzhou recently for the launch of a new book that tells the story of Sai-chiu Van, the founder of the Danish spring roll company Daloon.

Titled The Adventure of the Spring Roll, the biography by Danish law professor Ditlev Tamm relates how Van emigrated to Denmark from Hangzhou in 1935 and founded a business that fundamentally changed the attitude toward non-European food in Denmark.

"Mr Van was a successful Chinese entrepreneur who made good use of his background as well as the education opportunities in Denmark," Petersen said.

Van's first spring rolls were produced in his basement in Charlottenlund, a city north of Copenhagen. Today Daloon's products are sold in many European countries, with the UK, Germany and the Scandinavian countries the most important markets. Van passed away at the age of 90 in 2003 and his youngest son Hemming Van runs the company today. The book launch in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, also marked the 100th anniversary of Van's birth in that city.

Hangzhou Mayor Shao Zhanwei hosted a dinner to honor guests that included Tamm, Petersen and Joergen Delman, professor of Chinese at Copenhagen University.

Embassy staff and friends of Spain and Finland converged on Friday at Beijing's Bridge Gallery for Spanish tapas and wine, a flamenco performance and a preview of an art show by four Spanish artists - Enrique Brinckmann, Cristina Ducios, Consuelo Hernandez and Jose Palacios - and Finnish artist Totte Mannes, who has resided in Madrid for four decades.

Czech Ambassador Libor Secka and his wife, Sabrina, hosted a garden-party reception on Friday to celebrate the national day of the Czech Republic.

Germans cheerfully claim October as their own and the rest of the world has learned to happily raise a large stein of beer along with them. Last week the German embassy's cultural officer, Axel Gugel, hosted a big table inside the party tent at the Kempinski Beijing for about 50 enthusiasts of the embassy's blog and micro blogs. That included about 30 young Chinese who are frequent posters on deyinxiang.org.

Send embassy and consulate news to michaelpeters@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 10/26/2012 page31)