Guests at the Dutch embassy's day-long celebration of the Netherlands' new king swarmed the garden in a sea of orange, sporting neckties, blouses, sports jackets, hair ribbons and even eyeglasses in the national color. This was the big day for the prince of orange, after all, who became the country's first king in 123 years. The crowd watched on live TV as Queen Beatrix abdicated the throne on her 75th birthday, proclaiming "I am happy and grateful to introduce to you your new king, Willem-Alexander." Dutch Ambassador to China Aari Jacobi saluted the outgoing monarch for her grace and hard work during 33 years in the largely ceremonial role. Jacobi served as his country's ambassador to Japan for several years, and he recalled the queen's unflagging energy on a royal visit to Tokyo when she led a large business delegation there in 1991.

The new king's glamorous Argentinian wife, 41-year-old Queen Maxima, who is hugely popular in the Netherlands, was resplendent on the big screen in a royal blue dress, prompting applause from Argentina's Ambassador to China Gustavo Martino. "We have the queen! We have the pope! We have Messi!" he said with a broad grin at the Dutch embassy reception. "We can't lose this year."

The visa section of the Danish consulate-general in Shanghai co-hosted a visa training seminar for 23 travel agencies in Nanjing late last month, in cooperation with the Chinese foreign affairs office in Jiangsu province. Attache Mogens Pedersen from the consulate and Bao Guangliang of the Jiangsu Provincial Foreign Affairs Office ran the program, presenting visa-application rules for the Schengen countries.

"The Chinese have since 2012 been the top international tourism spenders. Our job is to make the visa application process as smooth as possible for Chinese citizens," Pedersen said. An important part of the seminar was to introduce agencies to the procedure for getting accredited for Approved Destination Status (ADS), which is a bilateral tourism arrangement with China that makes it easier to submit visa applications for larger groups to the Schengen countries.

British Ambassador Sebastian Wood last week welcomed members of the band Travis to his residence to perform a selection of their songs in front of their Chinese fans. The 50 local music fans at the concert were selected through an online competition hosted on the embassy's social-networking account on Sina Weibo. The performance was part of the "Great" Britain campaign, which the embassy says invites the world to take a fresh look at everything Britain has to offer.

Travis was in China to perform at the Strawberry Music Festival in Beijing and Shanghai from April 29 to May 1. The estimated audience for this three-day music festival was 200,000.

China's Ambassador to the UK Liu Xiaoming told an audience at London's City Week 2013, including Mayor Boris Johnson, that China's economic prospects are "ever bright".

"Over the past three decades you could describe the Chinese economy as riding on two wheels. These two wheels are investment and export. China must now add two more wheels and create a new balanced momentum that rides on four wheels. The additional two wheels must be consumption and scientific innovation," Liu said.

He added that China has already shaped its policies accordingly and it is paying off. While investment and exports are slowing down, consumption is growing at a double-digit rate, and a modern service sector is burgeoning.

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

(China Daily 05/03/2013 page31)