Italian ballet group Balletto di Roma will stage its version of Romeo and Juliet in Beijing. It is set in Italy after World War II. Provided to China Daily

Conferences & Meetings \>\> In China

Fifth Annual Congress on Food Safety & Quality 2011

The congress will focus on the hottest issues concerning food safety, including the latest policies on food additives; best practices on controlling the quality of agricultural raw materials, traceability of the whole food supply chain to ensure food safety and quality, food contamination and residue control. About 150 senior leaders of quality, R&D, and purchasing will join

Venue: Kerry Everbright City, Shanghai

Date: May 18-19

Contact: marketing@jfpsgroup.com.cn

Conference Series of Cervantes Institute, Beijing

At this new conference series at Instituto Cervantes, experts from Spain and China will talk about subjects like financial systems, renewable energies and railways. They will analyze Spain and China's industrial cooperation and special relationship.

Venue: Beijing Cervantes Institute

Date: from March 15

Contact: cult4pek@cervantes.org.cn

IT Showcase, Shanghai

This event will be dedicated to becoming the most professional IT summit in China with the largest scale and most comprehensive range of topics to help find personalized solutions for every type of company.

Venue: Crowne Plaza Hotel

Date: May 25-26

Contact: marketing@jfpsgroup.com.cn

Conferences & Meetings \>\> In Europe

Seminar: "The Chinese Entrepreneur Speaks"

This seminar is organized by the Confucius Institute. Representatives from Chinese companies, including the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the Xinhua News Agency, and the telecom giant Huawei, will speak about their companies' European strategy, their business style, and life in Belgium.

Venue: GROUP T's Vesalius Campus, Leuven, Belgium

Date: May 19

Contact: inschrijvingen.hv@voka.be

Scotland China Clinics, Scotland

Scottish Development International (SDI) and China-Britain Business Council (CBBC) are running a series of China Business clinics across major Scottish regions. People will have the opportunity to meet staff from CBBC's Scotland office and colleagues from SDI on matters ranging from market potential for your products and services to how to establish a presence in the market as well as the types of support and services available to help you develop the China market in a cost effective way.

Date: Till Dec 8

Custom Event, Brussels

After many years of doing business with China, some companies may have come across some customs issues with Belgian and/or Chinese customs while exporting goods to China or importing goods into Belgium. This event offers the latest information on Belgian-Chinese customs issues.

Venue: Best Western Premier HNA Sodehotel

Date: May 26

Contact: info@bcecc.be

Culture \>\> In China

Exhibition of debut movies by French directors

The center presents a series of maiden works by French film directors. Maiden works usually show strong individual artistic styles with creative perspectives and sharp opinions.

Venue: French Culture Center, Beijing

Date: Till May 13

Spanish Cinema: The Essentials, Beijing

This films series shows some of the best films produced in Spain during the last 15 years. The movies are essential in understanding the contemporary diversity of Spanish cinema and its evolution.

Venue: Beijing Cervantes Institute

Date: Till June 18

Contact: cult4pek@cervantes.org.cn

Exhibition: Recycling Art, Beijing

The best artworks of the International Recycling Art Festival of Catalonia are introduced for the first time in China. Recycling Art is a fresh and imaginative contemporary art exhibition that underlines the need for new consumption habits and questions the final fate of everyday products and their possible reuse once their lifetime comes to an early end.

Venue: Beijing Cervantes Institute

Date: May 6- June 30

Contact: cult4pek@cervantes.org.cn

The Art of the Enlightenment, Beijing

It is an exhibition presented by the Berlin State Museums, the Dresden State Art Collections and the Bavarian State Painting Collections in Munich, in cooperation with the National Museum of China.

Venue: The National Museum of China.

Date: Till March 31, 2012

Contact: service@smb.spk-berlin.de

Romeo and Juliet, Beijing

Set in Italy after the World War II, this ballet is an independent and passionate interpretation of the classical drama by Shakespeare. It tries to dig out the "breaking points" of human nature of the characters during their emotional development.

Date: May 25-May 26

Venue: National Center for Performing Arts

Contacts: www.chncpa.org

Culture \>\> In Europe

Shanghai-Paris Painting Exhibition, Paris

Placed side by side in the cultural landscape of the 20th century, Shanghai and Paris are two cities with many similarities and have respectively assumed the role of representatives for Eastern culture and Western culture for the past 100 years. Composed of three parts "From Shanghai", "Plural Charms" and "Force of Globalization", and through 40 works, the exhibition presents mostly pictorial compositions in ink, oil and watercolor.

Venue: Chinese Cultural Center

Date: Till May 16

Contact: cccparisinfo@gmail.com

Concert Series: Melody of Spring

Two performances of Quyi and a concert of traditional Chinese music will be given separately by artists from North China's Hebei province and an orchestra of traditional music New Word of Dunhuang. Quyi is a traditional Chinese theatrical form similar to that exerted by singers and comedians, including such art forms as story telling, cross talks and clapper talks.

Venue: Chinese Cultural Center

Date: Till May 26

Contact: cccparisinfo@gmail.com

2011 Spring Lecture Series: China Faces the World, Brussels

The Brussels Institute of Contemporary China Studies launches the lecture series, featuring 10 renowned experts, to contribute to a more qualitative debate about China's rise and its impact on Europe.

Venue: Vrije University

Date: Till May 18

Events can be submitted by e-mail to: events@mail.chinadailyuk.com.

Diplomatic Pouch >> With Mike Peters

Nineteen European Union member embassies across Beijing began opening their doors in a series of open-house events last week, as the 2011 EU-China Year of Youth continues. Ambassador Markus Ederer was the busiest host in the capital: The head of the EU Delegation kicked off the open-house events on May 6, three days before hosting a garden party for local dignitaries, business leaders and diplomats in honor of Europe Day.

The month-long program for young Chinese and Europeans includes lectures, visits to embassies' offices and ambassadors' residences and cultural performances.

Most of the open-house events are semi-private events for invited student groups and academics, hosted by the EU, Hungary, Romania, Spain, Germany, France, Malta, Cyprus, Luxembourg, the Czech Republic and Slovakia jointly, Austria, Greece, Lithuania, the Netherlands and Finland.

Three embassies plan larger-scale events that are open to the public. On Sunday (May 15), the embassy of Denmark will present two exhibitions, on fairy tales and bicycle culture, a week after the bike display was shown in Shanghai. Young participants will get to visit the residence of Ambassador Friis Arne Petersen and sample traditional food served up by Danish butchers (www.ambbeijing.um.dk)

On Monday morning, Poland's Ambassador Tadeusz Chomicki will welcome the public to performances of the Warsaw University Dance Ensemble "Warszawianka", a tour of the embassy building, Polish language lessons, quizzes, lucky draw and more (www.pekin.polemb.net).

The final event of the series on June 3, hosted by Italy's recently arrived Ambassador Attilio Massimo Iannucci, will feature two public screenings of the Italian movie Happy Family (2010) , by the famous director Gabriele Salvatores at the Italian Cultural Centre.

The EU-China Year of Youth was officially launched in January of this year in Brussels and in February in Beijing.

The Polish Embassy website (www.pekin.polemb.net) has launched its first newsletter for Chinese readers in Chinese, aiming to project the image of Polish as an open, dynamic, innovative country with a rich cultural heritage and an interesting offer for students and tourists from China.

The first edition features the official opening of four medical centers financed with assistance provided by the Polish government to the victims of the Sichuan earthquake, which ravaged the south western province of China in May 2008. The total value of Poland's assistance was estimated at 500,000 euros and included 160 large tents, more than 3,600 blankets, financing the restoration of four medical centers and medical treatment for children with leukemia and heart disease.

Three winners of a digital campaign on the British Embassy's Douban.com site enjoyed a lunch with British Ambassador Sebastian Wood at the envoy's residence. Zhang Zhe, Wang Zhixin andJiang Tingting were chosen for their exceptional contributions to the site (on social media website Douban.com), demonstrated by their blogging activity, engagement with forum discussions and creation of content. The winners and the ambassador shared thoughts on British culture, art, film and football, and the value of learning English. The discussion also covers how young Chinese people perceive the UK.

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