The European Union delegation in China will sponsor a series of open house events at embassies of its member states in May.

German Ambassador to China Michael Schaefer will host the opener on Monday, EU delegation head Markus Ederer will welcome guests to his delegation headquarters on May 11, and other European ambassadors will follow suit over the next seven weeks. The open houses feature exhibits and activities designed to help Chinese students of all ages learn more about Europe. To attend, you must register at individual embassies in advance; the German embassy open house is already at full capacity.

A list of all the activities is available on the EU delegation website (www.eu-in-china.com) and on weibo at www.weibo.com/euinchina.

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"There are many challenges to living in Beijing. Certainly on the personal family level, everywhere I go, I don't know where I am in Beijing. It's too big!" US Ambassador to China Gary Locke recently told laughing editors of People's Daily.

Locke, who noted that he has been the US envoy for about eight months, said he is focused on strengthening the relationships both between the two governments and the citizens.

Asked why people in both countries sometimes seem to embrace the film image of each other more than the actual people, Locke said: "I think we always need to differentiate between what we see in the movies, whether Hollywood movies or Chinese movies or kungfu movies or the movies about ancient China that you see on the airplanes when I travel throughout China. We always have to know that the film people will have a certain image and it doesn't always square up with reality."

Locke said the US has a love affair with China that goes back over 100 years. "It was the Chinese from Guangdong province, really, that came to the United States, that helped the United States finish the railroads that went from the east to the west," he said. "And it was the blood, sweat and tears of Asian-Americans and Chinese, and other immigrants, that contributed to the prosperity of cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Chicago. That's why we have large Chinese populations in America."

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Does being paid to travel sounds like a dream come true? The Canadian Tourism Commission invites Chinese adventurers to enter a contest where five Chinese couples will get the chance to be paid to explore Canada.

Derek Galpin, managing director of CTC China, and representatives from the Canadian embassy recently launched the competition. Galpin invited fun-loving, outgoing Chinese adventure seekers age 21 or older to enter.

More info at www.keepexploring.cn; the deadline for application is May 21.

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The Spanish embassy and the Cervantes Institute in Beijing are presenting the first concert in China by Spanish rock icon Luz Casal. The concert is part of the Meet in Beijing festival and will take place on May 6 in Beijing's Poly Theater.

After Beijing, Casal will proceed to perform in Shanghai and Guangzhou. Casal's award-winning themes have been part of soundtracks used by renowned Spanish filmmakers such as Pedro Almodovar and Alejandro Amenabar.

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Chinese journalist Liu Wanyuan and Anderas Ljungholm, head of the Asia unit at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute, were on hand last week as the Swedish government saluted the 100th anniversary of Wallenberg's birth. Wallenberg was the young Swede who saved tens of thousands of Jews in Budapest from the Holocaust near the end of World War II.

The Swedish government has organized a number of activities in 2012, both in Sweden and internationally, to commemorate his deeds and the continued need for tolerance. VIP guests at last week's ceremonies in Stockholm included Kofi Annan, former secretary-general of the United Nations.

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Finland will close its consulate general in Guangzhou by Aug 1, and applications for passports, visas and residence permits will not be handled there after May 31. Applications submitted before May 31 will be processed during the month of June. Future applications can be submitted to the embassy in Beijing. More info at www.finland.cn.

Embassy and consulate news can be sent to michaelpeters@chinadaily.com.cn.

Li Jing contributed to this report.