Mark your calendar: The holiday bazaar season is upon us, offering gift shopping, good food and drink and a little culture on the side that all support various local charities.

One of the best is thrown by expat women at the German embassy - with lots of charming handicrafts and holiday decorations, plus plenty of bratwurst, gluehwein, streudel and other sweet treats. This year's holiday fest is Saturday, Dec 1, 11 am to 5 pm. The line may look intimidating, but it moves fast and there's lots of good cheer. Photo ID required for entry.

The Friendship Communication Organization of Ambassadors and Madams on Knowing Chinese Culture recently hosted a tour of Rugao, a city famed for the longevity of its residents. Diplomats and wives from about 25 embassies joined the trip to see local people, culture and folk arts.

The organization will escort the group to Urumqi, Xinjiang autonomous region for an informational tour next month.

Australia's Deputy Ambassador to China, Graeme Meehan, opened a photo exhibition last week at the National Museum of China. Making Change: Celebrating 40 Years of Diplomatic Relations with China includes historical images of Gough Whitlow visiting Chinese leaders, first as Labor leader in 1971 and then as prime minister in 1973. The exhibition continues until Dec 14.

Representatives from Chile and China celebrated the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the Chilean-Chinese Institute of Culture last week in Santiago, highlighting the close ties between the two countries.

Chinese Ambassador Yang Wanming told Xinhua that in 1952, when most Chileans knew little about China, several famous figures, including former president Salvador Allende, Nobel Prize winner Pablo Neruda and acupuncture expert Paz Venturelli, took the initiative to found the institute.

Ecuador's Ambassador Leonardo Arizaga and his wife said farewell to friends and colleagues in the diplomatic community at a cocktail reception on Friday at the ambassador's residence. Arizaga will be Ecuador's new envoy to Venezuela.

The EU Delegation to China last week launched a short-film series, EU-China Love Links, to coincide with the ongoing fifth EU Film Festival in China. The 10 short films about cross-cultural relationships between Europeans and Chinese from all walks of life were filmed in various locations across Europe and China.

"Each couple provides the viewer with an intimate, yet accessible, story of how their love has overcome the challenges raised by an intercultural relationship," the delegation says in a website posting, "proving that love is truly without borders".

All the stories can be found online at weibo.com/euinchina and youku.com.

Mexico's embassy, the national tourism board and the Center for Mexican Studies UNAM-China, hosted Mexican astrophysicist Jesus Galindo Trejo earlier this month for a series of lectures on the apocalypse, as foretold in ancient Mayan prophesy. Interpretations of the Mayan calendar have focused on December 2012 as "the end of the world", but Galindo pointed out that there are many ways to interpret the same inscriptions. There are about a dozen other calculations, ranging from 300 years ago to 300 years in the future. The Mexico tourism officials at the program seemed cheerful about the odds, distributing pamphlets showcasing the attractions of the Yucatan peninsula, home base of the Maya centuries ago.

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

(China Daily 11/18/2012 page5)