The Royal Norwegian Embassy Newsletter

Dear all,

Hope you all have had a good start to the year of the Tiger!

The Lantern festival marks the end of Spring Festival this year and March is then upon us. It will be an exciting and busy month for the Embassy.

Writer and journalist Åsne Seierstad is on a mini tour in China and will be participating at Bookworm International Literary Festival as well as giving lectures at several universities.

We will arrange an extensive architecture study trip to Norway for Chinese architects, professors, curators and media. We think Norwegian architecture is exciting, innovative and relevant and several Norwegian architecture exhibitions and seminars will be arranged during 2010.

Environment and development is still in focus these days, and a kick-off seminar on Competence Building on Environmental Management is scheduled for the beginning of the month, and China Council Roundtable will take place towards the end.

The 7^th round of Free Trade Agreement negotiations between China and Norway will take place at the end of March.The month will round up with some excellent Norwegian music. Kings of Convenience will be in Hong Kong, while Excess Luggage – a jazz trio that have visited China several times before, will tour universities in Chengdu, Chongqing, Guiyang, Tianjin and Beijing.

Åsne Seierstad in Beijing

After living with the Kabul bookseller Sultan Khan for three months in the spring of 2002, Norwegian journalist Åsne Seierstad penned this astounding portrait of a nation recovering from war, undergoing political flux and mired in misogyny and poverty. Now among the most widely read accounts of Afghanistan after the Taliban, Seierstad's experiences – told first hand – are not to be missed. Read more >

Norwegian Business Forum Beijing (NBF) Annual General Meeting
	NBF's Annual General Meeting will be held on March 25th at 17:30 at the Embassy in Beijing (Meeting room at the IN Building). The AGM will be followed by an update on the ongoing Free Trade Agreement negotiations between Norway and China and a reception in the Ambassador’s Residence.Read more >

Excess Luggage tours China
	Excess Luggage is once again back in China. Excess Luggage’s 2010 China tour looks to be among the most extensive ever undertaken by a jazz band in China. Read more >

Kings of Convenience in Hong Kong
	King of Convenience released their latest album Declaration Of Dependence on October 20, 2009. They are now off on an extensive Asia tour, be sure don’t to miss them when they visit Hong Kong on March 25.Read more >

Huawei selects Opera as China enters 3G era
	On February 8, Opera Software announced that Huawei, the Chinese leading global telecommunications solutions provider, will preinstall the Norwegian made browser Opera Mobile 10 on a range of mobile handsets. Read more >

I Love Salmon Campaign
	The Norwegian Seafood Export Council (NSEC), launched a month-long online “I Love Salmon” Chinese New-Year and Valentines’ Day campaign in partnership with renren.com, China’s largest online social networking site which is similar to Facebook. Read more >