One day just didn't seem like enough for Mexican Independence Day, so Ambassador Jorge Guajardo has been hosting events for most of the past week. New embassy chef Yessica Hernandez got a baptism by fire - she's been cooking almost nonstop since Monday.

A garden reception for diplomats and press kicked things off on Wednesday, as fiesta sounds and aromas drifted around the Sanlitun embassy district.

On Thursday night the embassy invited the capital's Mexican community for a traditional El Grito celebration. That's the bell-ringing and "cry for independence" that sounds annually in every public square in Mexico from small villages to the capital city's Zocalo plaza. (It's a cry heard 'round the world, at every embassy and consulate, too.)

Virtuoso guitarist Paco Renteria kept the rhythm going with a public concert on Friday and a private performance Saturday before setting off on a China tour. Solo Mexican pianist Monique Rasetti wraps things up with a Sept 18 concert of Bach at the Forbidden City Concert Hall.

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Croatia's envoy to Beijing Ante Simonic, just back from a summer holiday at home, reports that Chinese artist Rita Zhao is taking Zagreb by storm with her exhibition of photographs taken on her tour of his country last year.

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Vice-Foreign Minister Li Jinzhang, who accompanied Vice-Premier Wang Qishan on a stopover visit to Bahamas, inspected the construction site of the new Chinese embassy and the security system upgrading project of the ambassador's residence. He also visited the construction workers on the site, with Mid-Autumn Festival holiday greetings for the embassy staff and the workers.

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The new US ambassador to China, Gary Locke, recently swore in 79 trainees as new Peace Corps volunteers in China during a ceremony at the Hongwa Hotel at Sichuan University in Chengdu.

It was the 17th class to arrive in China, where they are known as US China Friendship Volunteers.

"This is a really momentous occasion because we're celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Peace Corps," the ambassador said. More than 700 volunteers have served in China since 1993, Locke said.

The total number of volunteers in China is now 165, the agency's largest presence since the beginning of the program in the Middle Kingdom.

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Last month's International Poetry Festival in Western China's Qinghai province featured poets and other writers from 54 countries. Czech Ambassador Libor Secka presented the Czech poet Petr Borkovec. The main prize, the Golden Tibetan Antelope, was awarded to the Lithuanian poet Tomas Venclova.

Embassy news can be sent to mike.peters.cd@gmail.com.

(China Daily 09/18/2011 page5)