Diplomatic pouch >> With Mike Peters

Icelandic violinist Sigrun Edvaldsdottir and pianist Selma Gudmundsdottir will play a series of concerts in Beijing, Tianjin and Chengdu in July. The tour, co-organized by the embassy of Iceland, also include performances in Hangzhou, Ningbo, Huzhou and Beijing.

Edvaldsdottir began to play the violin at the age of 5 and has been the concertmaster of the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra since 1998. Gudmundsdottir, president of Richard Wagner Society in Iceland, is a member of the Reykjavik Chamber Orchestra.

Morning Tears, a charity that supports children of prisoners, hosted a benefit fair and barbecue at the Belgian embassy in Beijing in June. Belgian restaurant Morel's was one of several businesses that provided food, beer and entertainment. Morning Tears has offices in Belgium, Spain and China.

John Ashton, the UK's special representative for climate change, told a Beijing conference last week that the era of cheap and abundant food, water, and energy is over and we need a different kind of economy.

"We need a low-carbon, resource-efficient, climate-resilient economy that secures the four resource pillars on which security and prosperity depend," he said. "Right now in China and Western Europe drought, and now in the case of China floods as well, are again threatening harvests. In not much more than a generation, we need to have built a carbon-neutral energy system globally."

Award-winning Danish film director Bille August answered questions about his present and future film projects recently at a forum for Danish and Chinese movie enthusiasts in Shanghai. The Danish Chamber of Commerce-Shanghai, the consulate general of Denmark in Shanghai and Paustian hosted about 50 people for the event.

August said he will soon begin shooting a film about the Danish painter Marie Kryer, the former wife of the Danish painter P.S. Kryer - both famous for their painting of Skagen in northern Denmark. The director said that many Chinese film companies are interested in working with him, and he has had several meetings during his visit with both Chinese film companies and investors. He plans to return to China in autumn.

Italian Ambassador Attilio Massimo Iannucci recently hosted 78 young students and five teachers from the National Boarding School Vittorio Emanuele II of Rome, a public college that in September 2009 launched the first International High School with the option of Chinese language.

The educational project is a collaboration with the Department of Oriental Studies of the University La Sapienz of Rome and the Confucius Institute in Rome. It attaches particular importance to study-stays at schools or universities in China, with the goal of deepening the level of knowledge of history, culture and Chinese traditions of the students.

Iannucci also received a delegation from the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi, which arrived in Beijing to promote Chinese tourism in Florence. The Italian Institute of Culture in Beijing and Shanghai are among the participants in a project to create a special "passport" in Italian, English and Chinese.

The passport will contain information and curiosities, maps, routes and useful indications that will enable Chinese tourists to discover the treasures related to the city of Florence and the region of Tuscany.

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