US Ambassador to China Gary Locke announced recently that the embassy's offices around China had processed for the first time more than 1 million non-immigrant visas in a year.

"Only one other country in the world has done that," he said, "and that's Mexico. This increase in China represents a 34 percent increase over the number of applications that we processed last year."

Locke said the US is working to make applying for all US visas easier for Chinese, whether for study, tourism or business. He urged applicants to apply early whenever possible and to take advantage of the "drop-box system" if they have traveled to the US before.

Previous travelers can simply drop off their passports and collect them later with their new visa, if they have a visa that's current or that has expired less than one year ago..

Minister Counselor for Consular Affairs Charles Bennett said that 50 additional visa officers who speak Chinese will arrive to work in China in March.

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A surge of votes for songs in Chinese kept the race tight in Finland's online Santa Claus Season's Greetings Song Contest 2012. But at the end of the month-long vote in December, the song that got the most votes from Internet users around the world was Believe by the Finnish rock band Negative.

The competition was jointly organized by Radio86, the Santa Claus Foundation, the China Internet Information Center and China Radio International. Most votes from China favored Saara Aalto (for Blessed With Love/Ai De Zhu Fu) and the Semmarit choir (for Zhong Guo Ren).

Jonne Aaron, the singer of Negative, accepted the award on behalf of the band at the office of Radio86 in Tampere, Finland, last week, saying the win is the best Christmas present he could imagine. "I actually thought that Saara Aalto (pictured), who sang beautifully in Chinese, would win," he said.

The contest was part of a campaign to promote Finland in China as Santa's home. The Santa song contest is likely to become an annual event.

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Last month a group of 10 art-gallery owners and managers from Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou spent a week visiting Oslo and Stavanger, a trip organized by the Norwegian embassy in Beijing.

The group spent most of its time in Oslo, visiting art galleries, museums, arts management and public funding institutions. The gallerists were very interested to see how government funding makes non-profit institutions possible in Norway, the embassy says on its website.

The embassy has previously sponsored study trips on a wide range of topics. Last year, a group of architects travelled to Norway to get a feel for contemporary Norwegian architecture.

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Two 6-kroner stamps issued in Copenhagen this week completed the first bilateral stamp production between Denmark and China. The Danish stamps, engraved with steel plates like two 1.20 yuan stamps issued in Nanjing last month, were designed by Chinese stamp designers and engravers after a study course with Danish experts this fall.

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A record-setting number of Chinese visitors traveled to Denmark in 2011, the Danish embassy reports. During the first 10 months, 75,870 Chinese people entered Denmark - a 5.05 increase comparing with 2010, representing an increase of almost 20 percent year to date.

In 2012, two new direct routes between Denmark and China will open. SAS will fly a route between Copenhagen and Shanghai and Air China between Copenhagen and Beijing, which will increase the current capacity between the two capitals by 60 percent - equivalent to up to 50,000 more passengers a year.

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Cuba's Vice-Chairman Ricardo Cabrisas of the Council of Ministers last week met with Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi and Vice-Premier Wang Qishan in Beijing last week, exchanging views on China-Cuba relations.

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China's Ambassador to Sierra Leone Kuang Weilin recently hosted a New Year dinner in honor of Sierra Leonean President Dr Ernest Bai Koroma at the embassy in Freetown.

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Canadian Ambassador David Mulroney has created a mild Internet sensation with microblog posts about his car, a modest Toyota Camry. Otttawa's Fleet Management Directive limits some ministers to $32,400 and others to $27,000 for official cars, which should be hybrids or low-fuel emission vehicles, Mulroney had posted.

His post received 1,145 comments and 3,176 forwards.

The Canadian embassy's microblog launched June 29 to "demystify" the embassy and make it more "interesting, informative and transparent". Mulroney held an open question-and-answer chat on the blog about his car.

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At the EU Delegation staff Christmas party last month, EU Ambassador to China Markus Ederer invited all staff and their families to a Christmas gathering where donations were collected for two charities. Money given to China Little Flower helps abandoned infants and severely disabled children, and provides hospice care for dying children. Clothes, toys and other donations in kind were collected for Roundabout China, which distributes collected donations to people in need.

Send embassy news to mike.peters.cd@gmail.com.

(China Daily 01/08/2012 page6)