Being a wingless bird with a tuxedo does not automatically make you a penguin, but the whole cast of Angry Birds was in the frigid city of Harbin last week as the annual Ice and Snow Festival opened. Finland's ambassador to China, Lars Backstrom, laced up his Nordic gear and trekked to China's northeast to make opening-day speeches at the festival and the concurrent Arctic Exhibition. He was ably seconded, we hear, by those best-selling game birds, who have their own 3,000-square-meter park this year.

The international crowd included more diplomats and sister-city representatives (Harbin has 27 sister cities in 23 countries at last count), including Santa Claus, from Harbin's sister city Rovaniemi in Finnish Lapland.

China's ambassador to France, Kong Quan, braved an afternoon rainstorm in Paris last week to participate in the launch of the Chinese Year of the Snake stamp issued by the French Post Office. Also in attendance was the stamp's designer, local Chinese expat painter Li Zhongyao - who has designed eight of the nine Chinese New Year stamps (all except the rat stamp) issued by France since 2005.

"I have come to these launches over the last few years and am always happy to see stamp collectors eager to buy the new stamp," Kong said, noting that the French postal service plans to print 3 million of the stamps. Kong says they are in talks about creating a commemorative stamp to celebrate the 50 years of Sino-French relations next year.

The Austrian embassy co-hosted the opening of Werner Berg: From Expressionism to Pop Art at the National Art Museum of China last weekend, presenting a string trio from the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra. The exhibition continues at the Beijing museum until Jan 14.

Norway's ambassador to China Svein Ole Saether recently hosted 20 Chinese journalists and editors for lunch and a chat about the upcoming 150th anniversary of the birth of the Norwegian painter Edward Munch next year. Introducing "a modern artist with a modern eye for the world", Saether promises that events this year will give Munch fans worldwide, old and new, a fresh perspective. After a short seminar on Munch, the ambassador took his guests from general and arts publications on a guided tour of the original Munch pieces in the embassy residence. Munch's originals have been exhibited twice in China. The first exhibition, in 1983, traveled from Beijing to Chongqing and Kunming, while the second took place in Shanghai in 1997. This year, almost all of Munch's paintings will return to Norway for a series of exhibitions.

Zbynek Noha, the new deputy ambassador at the Czech embassy in Beijing, was in Tianjin recently for the ribbon-cutting at the new Crystal Art Gallery, an exclusive venue for works by Czech artist Petr Doubek. Doubek says the impetus for opening a gallery comes from his friend Chen Pingling, a former employee of the Chinese embassy in Prague.

Pia Allerslev, vice-mayor of Copenhagen, recently visited Beijing to follow up on the Danish capital's sister-city agreement that was signed last June. Allerslev met her counterpart Lu Wei, vice-mayor of Beijing, and Soren Jacobsen, deputy head of mission for Denmark in China.

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

(China Daily 01/11/2013 page31)