Zentrum für Produktentwicklung, Hochschule für Technik Rapperswil (HSR), visited swissnex China

April 25, 2018

By Xu Yuzhuo, Junior Project Leader Academic Relations

On April 24, 28 bachelor students from HSR Switzerland visited swissnex China. Felix Moesner, CEO of swissnex China, welcomed the delegation and gave a presentation about our activities.

Then Quentin Gigon, Junior Project Leader Innovation and Entrepreneurship, introduced the current innovation landscape in China.

Quentin’s presentation was followed by a presentation held by Xu Yuzhuo, Junior Project Leader Academic Relations, who informed the students about WeChat.

It was a great pleasure having the delegation from Zentrum für Produktentwicklung, Hochschule für Technik Rapperswil and we wish them an interesting and successful trip in China!

Swiss Education Fair

April 18, 2018

By Xu Yuzhuo, Junior Project Manager in academic relations

Organized by the Swiss Busines Hub China, the first Swiss Education Fair was successfully held on 17 March 2018 at Swissôtel Grand Shanghai. swissnex China participated at the fair to represent all Swiss public universities. The well-received event was joined by more than 150 visitors.

The fair started with speeches given by the Consul General of Switzerland in Shanghai, Mr. Alexander Hoffet, and the Head of Business Hub China, Mr. Yves Morath. They introduced Switzerland and Swiss educational institutes to interested students and parents. Furthermore, two alumni were invited to share their valuable experience about studying in Switzerland.

The second part of the fair consisted of individual Q&A sessions. Students and parents were invited to walk around to consult with representatives of different Swiss schools and educational institutes about different study programs and Switzerland in general. The swissnex China team not only displayed brochures of public universities but also offered personal advice, which was provided by alumni of the University of Zurich, University of Lausanne, University of St. Gallen and the University of Lugano. Currently doing an internship at swissnex China, they were pleased to answer questions and share their experience of student life in Switzerland with the interested visitors.

Insight China visited swissnex China on 13 April 2018

Insight China is a prestigious project in its 17th year at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland (FHNW) and offers ambitious students the opportunity to gain insight into China’s cultural and economic diversity.

A delegation of 30 bachelor students of FHNW led by the Dean of School of International Business Management spent an interesting and insightful afternoon with swissnex China on 13 April 2018.

Felix Moesner, CEO of swissnex China, welcomed the students and introduced swissnex and its mission and activities in China.

Lijun Zhang, swissnex China’s Project Leader for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, gave a presentation on innovation & phenomenal trends in China.

The afternoon continued with a presentation of Patrick Glauser, Head of Operation & Business Development China of M-industry. Also invited were his colleagues Lisa Liu, General Manager of E-commerce, who later gave a presentation on the e-commerce landscape in China, and Damian Bürgin, Trainee M-Industry China.

Currently having shops on the e-commerce platforms T-mall and Kaola, M-industry set up its presence in China less than two years ago, providing authentic Swiss products to Chinese consumers.

We wish the Insight China delegation a successful trip and look forward to welcoming the next year’s delegation at swissnex China!

ETH Zurich Study Tour on ‘How to do business in China’

March 27, 2018

By Xu Yuzhuo, Junior Project Manager in academic relations

From March 19 to March 23, MAS ETH group(40 ppl), in which all participants are specialists and prospective managers with technical background and professional experience, stayed in Shanghai for one week study tour with focus on “How to do business in China”.

In the morning of 19th March, the group was warmly welcomed by Felix Moesner, CEO of swissnex China. He talked about the mission of swissnex in China, which includes tech scrutiny and trend spotting. The morning then continued with presentation from Ms. YE Mingya, Trade Promotion officer of Swiss Business Hub, on the topic of how to assist Swiss companies in doing business in China.  

@swissnex

In the afternoon, the group was split into two groups, one group visited XNode and the other one went to TechTemple. Xnode and TechTemple are well-developed accelerator/incubator for startups. ETH MAS group had opportunity to visit their high quality co-working space and exchange with startups based there.

@TechTemple and Xnode

The ETH MAS group also visited Geek+’s smart warehouse in Kunshan. Geek+ is a fast grow startup established less than 4 years ago, which leads the technology revolution by advanced robotics and AI technologies to realize high-flexibility and intelligent logistics automation solution. The group learnt about how Geek+’s robots operate to realize a smart logistic process with reduced demand of manpower as well as the rapid development of Chinese smart logistics.

@Geek+

In the same afternoon, the ETH MAS group visited Swiss Center Shanghai, a non-profit organization serving the Swiss economy by providing adapted services for SME’s intending or entering the Chinese and Asia market. Ms. Emmanuelle Roduit, operation manager at SCS, gave an informative presentation on how Swiss Center operates in China. Then Mr. Joe Liu, managing director of Fraisa China, shared Fraisa’s experience in “conquering” China as a Swiss SME. In the evening, the group was invited to a reception at the residence of Mr. Alexander Hoffet, Consul General of Switzerland in Shanghai, which was also joined by external guests. The group was warmly welcomed by Mr.& Mrs. Hoffet and enjoyed a very delightful evening.  

@China-Singapore Suzhou Industrial Park

@GCL

The next day, the ETH MAS group took a day trip to Suzhou, where they visited Suzhou Industrial Park and GCL, the world’s champion manufacturer of high quality photovoltaic material located at Suzhou Industrial Park. 

@CEIBS

After three days of visit, the group spent the fourth day at China Europe International Business School (CEIBS) where they were joined by CEIBS students for a design thinking workshop, to put what they’ve learned and observed in the past days of the week into practice. During the day, the group also had the pleasure to welcome Mr. Nicolas Musy, who is the founder of Swiss Center China and learnt about “where is Chinese economy heading – Challenge and Opportunities” from Mr. Musy.

On the last day of the China trip, the ETH MAS team came back swissnex for a wrap-up session and final presentation of their work that they did at the workshop the day before. In the afternoon, they visited the art district in Shanghai to experience the artistic side of the city. 

@swissnex

This China study trip was a good opportunity for the group to learn about innovation in China and how startups and companies grow. swissnex China very much looks forward to welcoming the next ETH MAS MTEC class in 2019!

Social Interactions in Virtual Reality

By Valentin Beuchat, Junior Project Manager

On Thursday, February 8, a diverse audience of 35 came to swissnex China to hear Prof. Marianne Schmid Mast present her research on virtual reality. This event was organized by HEC Lausanne, the Faculty of Business and Economics of the University of Lausanne, and swissnex China, which hosted the event in its premises.

After a few words of welcome, Felix Moesner, CEO of swissnex China, gave the stage to Marianne Schmid Mast, who is full professor of Organizational Behavior at HEC Lausanne and also active as editorial board member of Leadership Quarterly and associate editor of the Journal of Nonverbal Behavior. But even more impressive, she has been awarded in January 2018 as one of the top 50 most influential living psychologists in the world (according to TheBestSchools.org).

The main topic of the conference was about how we can use virtual reality to study human social behaviors and to train social skills such as public speaking and job interview to mention few examples. Virtual reality enables us to have an interpersonal behavior simulator, creating any sort of social behavior, studying what people do or training them to behave in a specific way, and interacting with virtual humans. And as Marianne Schmid Mast said, “a virtual human can interact: make eye contact, talk, and move around”.

Then, she explained the three main advantages of using immersive virtual reality for interpersonal interaction research. The first advantage being standardization, meaning that virtual human interviewers (in the case of a job interview) behave in the same way with all applicants. The second one is the logistics and costs, with a specific focus on how to empower women in leadership tasks such as public speaking. Results of Marianne Schmid Mast’s study showed that if you are a woman faced with a leadership task, you should get inspired by a successful female role model. Furthermore, if you are a successful female role model, you should get visibility. The third advantage is called manipulation, meaning the environment within the virtual world shapes our interpersonal behavior. For instance, results demonstrated that if you want a male leader to be charismatic, you should give him a posh office!

“Changes in the environment that are hard to do in reality can be done in virtual reality”, summarized Marianne Schmid Mast.

The second part of the conference was dedicated to the use of immersive virtual reality for social skills training. Highlights of this part were that VR allows an easy access to a training partner who is available anytime and never tired. Also, participants suffer from double reality, or as Marianne said: “Experiencing double reality: I know this is not real but I am still afraid of falling”. Another great feature of VR is that you can have an adaptability and variability of the training scenarios (e.g. your training partner can be kind, unpleasant, male, female, etc.). In addition, the audience is now able to provide feedback to the speaker by showing its boredom or chatting with each other for examples. VR is also the place where new experiences are made possible. Imagine yourself in front of an audience, but the venue is a closed-down factory and you speak from the last floor under the roof while being afraid of heights. Last but not least, “you can encounter yourself in VR” said Marianne Schmid Mast.

To conclude this very interesting conference, will machines teach us interpersonal skills as the new scientific empire described in the Brave New World novel by Aldous Huxley? Marianne Schmid Mast claimed that VR is a tool that does not replace the trainer or the expert but can replace the social environment (e.g. the training partner) and it can outsource some aspects of the training for the coach.

After the presentation, a moderated Q&A followed by a networking reception allowed the audience and Marianne Schmid Mast to exchange and further discuss the topic. We would like to extend a warm thank you to Prof. Marianne Schmid Mast for her remarkable presentation, and to the audience – all of whom took part in making this event a success. 

Testimonials

“The warm welcome I got from the swissnex China team was simply outstanding! I also appreciated the exchanges, interest, and open-mindedness toward the topic. It was very inspiring for me.” Prof. Marianne Schmid Mast.

Visit to the University of Zurich

The swissnex annual meeting was held from 11-15 December 2017, various meetings and visits on topics of research, education and innovation were organized during the week, among which the visit to UZH on 14 December to learn about the latest research development there. 

UZH is known for its stand at the forefront of cutting-edge researches, and the visit highlighted its efforts on digital society. Welcomed by Prof. Christian Schwarzenegger, Vice President of UZH, the delegation had the pleasure to learn about the following nine research projects that are currently being conducted by different researchers at UZH: 

Prof. Michael Baudis, “Life Sciences Data” 

Prof. Baudis’s research focus is on the analysis of structural variations in cancer genomes by computational genomics, including bioinformatics and systems biology methods. His work centers around their collection of genomic tumor data, assembled from copy number screening experiments in cancer. More details: http://www.imls.uzh.ch/en/research/baudis.html 

Prof. Patricia Schlagenhauf, “ITIT-Illness tracking in travelers” 

Patricia Schlagenhauf is a Scientist and Professor at the University of Zürich, WHO Collaborating Centre for Travel Medicine, Switzerland and is active in research, teaching and travel clinic duties. She explained how digital tool can be used to collect data about illness and disease among travelers. More details: https://www.ebpi.uzh.ch/en/aboutus/departments.html

Prof. Anita Gohdes, “Politics in the Digital Age” 

Prof. Gohdes’s research focuses on political violence, state repression and the measurement of human rights. Her research project theoretically and empirically investigates how governments use digital communication technology to inform their strategies of violent repression. More details: https://www.ipz.uzh.ch/en/institut/mitarbeitende/staff/gohdes.html 

Dr. Amani Said, Science matters (UZH Startup) 

“Stories can wait, science cannot” - Being aware of the difficulties that scientist have been facing when publish articles, instead of publishing stories, Matters and Matters select publish single, validated observations, thus highlighting the fundamental unit of scientific progress – the observation. More details: https://www.sciencematters.io/ 

Prof. Abraham Bernstein, “digital Society Initiative” 

The digitalization is fundamentally changing science and society. This process challenges existing paradigms, enables novel approaches for research and teaching, and requires new competences in a rapidly changing societal reality. The Digital Society Initiative provides an academic platform for promoting critical, interdisciplinary reflection and innovation on all aspects of the digitalization of society and the sciences.

Swiss Day at Tsinghua University

Do you want to try some delicious Swiss cheese and chocolates? Do you want to paint some lovely St. Bernard statues? Do you want to join a lucky draw and has the opportunity to win a Swatch? Do you want to learn more about Switzerland? The Swiss Day at Tsinghua University on 4th December fulfilled all your dreams above.

On the occasion of Tsinghua’s “Vision in Tsinghua, Dialogue with Ambassadors” lecture series, the STE section of the Swiss Embassy in Beijing organized a Swiss Day at Tsinghua University to promote Swiss excellence in higher education and innovation, as well as the Sino-Swiss Year of Tourism in 2017. The highlight of the event was the lecture delivered by Ambassador Jean-Jacques de Dardel on “Innovation in Public Diplomacy” to Tsinghua students. More than 160 Tsinghua students and staff participated in the event, largest amount of participants since Tsinghua started the “Vision in Tsinghua, Dialogue with Ambassadors” lecture series, showcasing the strong interests of the students on Switzerland, its culture and foreign policy.

Our Swiss booth were set up right outside of the Lecture Hall in the main building of Tsinghua University. The Swiss booth consisted of three main areas: catering area, information area and painting area. In the catering area, we offered Tsinghua students a “Swiss Culinary Experience”. Other than different kinds of authentic Swiss cheese, there were various chocolates and biscuits sponsored by Migros and Nestle. Students could also fresh their minds by enjoying one cup of nice coffee made by our friends from Nespresso.

Although Switzerland enjoys a very positive image worldwide, its strength in education, innovation and research remain unknown to the general public. Our information area highlighted Switzerland’s innovative strength and competitiveness as well as the high quality of Swiss education. Many students stopped by and expressed their interest in studying in Switzerland in the future.

Thanks to the collaboration with Switzerland Tourism, the St. Bernard Dog Painting Workshop was a big success. Students enjoyed this opportunity and 40 small St. Bernard dog statues were painted by Tsinghua students using their own creativity and imagination. Check out some of the pictures – which one is your favorite?

To help the students gain more knowledge about Switzerland, we also brought a quiz which was followed by a lucky draw. Around 150 students filled out the Swiss quiz and participated in the lucky draw which included distributed 1 Swatch, 5 SIGG water bottles, 10 Swisscard knives and more than 100 small Swiss souvenir bags. The different elements showcased during the event were a good promotion of Switzerland and the feedback we received so far are all positive. We have a reason to believe that more Swiss Day events are coming at other universities. 

Visiting Shantou University and Promoting Swiss Education and Innovation

On Nov 15th, the Ambassador, H. E. Mr. Jean-Jacques DE DARDEL, Mr. Didier Boschung, Consul General of Switzerland in Guangzhou, Mr. Rene Baenziger Deputy Consul General of Switzerland in Guangzhou, Dr. Felix Moesner, CEO of swissnex China visited Shantou University.

Shantou University, a key comprehensive university under the provincial Project 211 program in Guangdong, was founded in 1981 with the approval of the State Council. It is the only public university that receives funding from the Li Ka Shing Foundation. Furthermore, Shantou University holds some “swissness” since it was designed by renown Swiss architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron, the joint designer of the famous Beijing National Stadium in Beijing, also known as the “Bird’s Nest”.

Under the auspice of the Li Ka Shing Foundation, STU has become one of the few universities in Mainland China that awards full scholarships to overseas exchange students. The university has established close academic ties with nearly 20 universities. Shantou University wished to spread information through swissenx to establish cooperation on student exchange, dual degree and internship. 

Swiss-Chinese Friendship Day in Shantou

On November 15th and 16th, the Consulate General of Switzerland in Guangzhou, together with swissnex China, Switzerland Global Enterprise Beijing, Switzerland Tourism Beijing/Hong Kong organized a Swiss Day to celebrate Swiss-Chinese Friendship Day in Shantou, see the whole series events in CG Guangzhou official WeChat account.

As partner of the event, swissnex China held an “Innovation and education” seminar. Switzerland has enjoyed for a long time a strong reputation as a unique tourist destination, however, the world is discovering the country's world class education, innovation and creativity. This seminar introduces Switzerland in general and examples of innovation, then share experience how education could facilitate the innovation and how it remains a driver for innovation and creativity in Switzerland.

The Ambassador, H. E. Mr. Jean-Jacques DE DARDEL went to seminar room and deliver a welcome address. Dr. Felix Moesner, CEO of swissnex China intruded Swiss strength in innovation and Swissnex as the Swiss global network connecting the dots in education, research, and innovation. Shi Bodong, project manager embedded in Consulate General of Switzerland in Guangzhou introduced Switzerland in general and Swiss education system. Mr. Didier Boschung, Consul General of Switzerland in Guangzhou also attended the seminar.  

Made in Swiss, Drug discovery seminar

Based on an innovative strategic partnership agreed between the Chinese President and the President of the Swiss Confederation in 2016, Swiss innovation gets traction among Chinese investors and companies. 

As leading country in drug discovery, Switzerland embraces the academic and industry collaboration and keen to have Chinese healthcare companies carry out research collaboration with universities and research institutes in Switzerland. 

On Dec 5th,  “Made in Switzerland Drug Discovery “seminar was held in Novartis Shanghai center with over 80 participants from healthcare industry in China.  Keynote speakers from university of Zurich Prof Christoph Hock and Prof Michael Hennig from university of Basel shared Swiss advantage in new drug discovery especially early stage by leveraging the research sources and talent power which are unparalleled in the world.

Panelists discussed the key pain in exploratory  and optimization stages in drug discovery in China. To shape the future of drug discovery, partnering with Swiss research power for scientific collaboration and  sending staff  to Switzerland in proximity to research institutes would be an idea win-win method.  Such healthcare hub and research  powers as Basel, university of Zurich, Paul Scherrer Institute etc. have strong know-how and leading in drug discovery science and technology development. 

Reimagining Shell Structures: Philippe Block’s keynote at Tongji University

On 1 Dec. 2017, Prof. Philippe Block, Director of the Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) Digital Fabrication gave a keynote speech at the IStructE Asia-Pacific Forum at Tongji University.

With the research focus on equilibrium design methods and computational form finding and fabrication of curved surface structures, Prof. Block shared his learning from the structural principles that the master builders developed throughout history and also his research on shell structures with the attendants.

Prof. Philippe Block giving a lecture at Tongji University

Prof. Philippe Block giving a lecture at Tongji University

Drawing from a revival of forgotten principles combined with the latest advances in the design, engineering, fabrication and construction of doubly-curved shell structures, Prof. Block’s lecture reveals the foundations upon which the award-winning “Beyond Bending” exhibition at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2016 and the thin, flexibly formed concrete shell of the NEST HiLo project were based.

Armadillo Vault, Venice, Italy, photo by Iwan Bann

*Full-scale construction prototype of the NEST HiLo shell roof, photo by Michael Lyrenmann

Prof. Philippe Block, is currently teaching at the Institute of Technology in Architecture at ETH Zurich. He has studied architecture and structural engineering at the VUB in Belgium and at MIT in USA. The Block Research Group focuses on equilibrium design methods and computational form finding and fabrication of curved surface structures. Prof. Block is also the director of the Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) Digital Fabrication.

Shanghai International Conference on Interdisciplinarity

Guest blog by Dean AiLing Zhang, GIIT, SISU and former Dean of ETI, Hannelore Lee-Jahnke, University of Geneva

On November 3 and 4, the International Conference on Interdisciplinarity took place at the Shanghai International Studies University (SISU). The aim of interdisciplinarity is to get away from pure specialization and open thus new pathways in training and research, creating new common grounds. This is the reason why universities tend nowadays to break down barriers between disciplines in order to open new possibilities for broader knowledge and creativity.

Language and Translation & Interpretation play a fundamental role in any of the disciplines taught at university level and can hence function as a major player in an interdisciplinary approach. Interdisciplinarity today becomes a must in education since it is based on the possibility to conceive all that links the different subjects together, as well as the aptitude to contextualize and to globalize knowledge.

Its aim is not only to open the barriers between the disciplines, but also to possibly transform what creates those barriers, i.e. the principles which structure knowledge.

Language is certainly a pivot vehicle of and for interdisciplinarity. A fact, which has been stressed within the framework of globalization. Switzerland, as a plurilingual country, is kind of a showcase in terms of language proficiency. With this background in mind, the objective of the interdisciplinary approach is to find ways and means to enhance even more these language skills, in order to make them a pivot- element in training and research, which can help to liaise with and amongst the disciplines.

The conference included fields such as international communication, economy, labor market, training, and community translation & Interpretation. The chosen approach was to foster collaboration with other top faculties and/or universities in the given fields by offering joint training and research facilities for specifically selected students and to spark interest among renowned specialists of the different fields to collaborate in research through finding national funding for PhD and research projects.

Under the leadership of Professor AiLing Zhang, Dean, GIIT, SISU and Professor Hannelore Lee-Jahnke, Co-Chair, Interdisciplinary Research Center, GIIT, SISU, former Dean of ETI, University of Geneva, the conference was a great opportunity for Swiss universities such as University of Geneva, University of Fribourg, or ZHAW to exchange with peers in Shanghai and expend their networks. In the following, there is a small selection of speakers at the conference.

Dr. Feng Jiang, Chairman of the University Board, SISU

Dr. Florika Fink-Hooijer, Director-General, DG-Interpretation, European Commission

Dr. Felix Moesner, CEO, swissnex China

Group picture with speakers

All Swiss school & universities alumni gathering 2017 in Beijing

The weather is starting to get colder, winter is approaching and what comes to mind when you see snow? Winter sports! Glühwein! Raclette! The times you have spent in the cold winter in Switzerland, in the city enjoying some Glühwein or up in the mountains skiing and having Raclette, were missed for sure.

That’s why we thought of recreating the same atmosphere of the cozy winter, a chalet offering Glühwein, a movie showing the amazing scenery of the Swiss mountains, and the traditional Swiss food Raclette on the occasion of the All Swiss Schools & Universities Alumni Gathering, which took place at the Embassy of Switzerland in Beijing on the 2nd of November 2017.

Invited by the Ambassador of Switzerland to China, H.E Mr. Jean-Jacques de Dardel, and the Science Technology and Education Section of the Swiss Embassy in Beijing, together with the contribution from swisslearning, and the guest of honours H.E. Ivo Bischofberger, President of the Swiss Council of States and Nicolas Bideau, Ambassador, Head of Presence Switzerland, over 150 alumni from Swiss schools and universities participated in the gathering.

The Ambassador’s speech welcomed the alumni and was followed by a buffet reception including Raclette made with Swiss cheese that we ordered especially from Switzerland. Raclette originated from the region of Valais and we had the pleasure of getting it served the traditional way by one of our Valais colleagues Liam Bates, founder and CEO of Kaiterra.

The Ambassador de Dardel has been attaching great importance to alumni event as he values the ties created by students from both countries. He invites alumni to get together at his residence on a regular base in order to let them continue their close ties with Switzerland after their studies. It’s a great pleasure to see that the alumni enjoy and appreciate such kind opportunities evidenced by their enthusiastic participations.

It is our wish to provide opportunities for alumni to meet up once in a while to catch up with old friends and make new friends, and to feel that their study experience does not finish after their returns, it is in fact a long lasting story which will develop further with new element added over time, and we are here to support and connect each of them.

All Swiss Schools & Universities Alumni Gathering 2016 in Beijing

Be it the cup of coffee that you had with friends sitting on the staircases of the university building, or the cup of coffee that accompanied you late at night when you were trying to finish course assessment before the deadline, almost for sure, there is always a cup of good coffee deep in your memories of your student life in Switzerland.

That's why we thought about offering the alumni of Swiss schools and universities an unique opportunity to make their own coffee with professional coffee-making guidance given by Nespresso Coffee Ambassadors and to recall their memorable experiences in Switzerland while enjoying the coffee on the occasion of the All Swiss School & University Alumni Gathering, which took place at the Embassy of Switzerland in Beijing on 21st October 2016.

Invited by the Ambassador of Switzerland to China, H.E Mr. Jean-Jacques de Dardel,  and Science Technology and Education Section of the Swiss Embassy in Beijing, together with contribution from swisslearning and support from Nespresso, over 100 alumni from Swiss schools and universities participated the gathering despite the raining weather.

The drizzling night was immediately warmed up by the Nespresso Barista Workshop - 4 tables on which Nespresso Coffee Machines and various ingredients were nicely presented with a Nespresso Coffee Ambassador standing beside each table waiting for the guests.  Each of the participants got a seat at the one of the tables and took on the journey of exploring the dynamic world of coffee-making presented by Nespresso and finally made their own cups of coffee with their choices of flavor.

Filled up with the excitement of the alumni from their achievement at the workshop, the night was further highlighted by the Ambassador's welcome speech. Ambassador de Dardel has been attaching great importance to alumni events as he values significantly the ties created by students from both countries. He invites alumni to get together at his residence on a regular base in order to let the them continue their close ties with Switzerland after their studies, and it's a great pleasure to see that the alumni enjoy and appreciate such kind of opportunities evidenced by their enthusiastic participations.

The Ambassador's speech was followed by a buffet reception including raclette made with Swiss cheese that we ordered from Switzerland especially for this evening as well as Swiss wine. Authentic Swiss food like a time machine that carried all the guests back to Switzerland and opened up warm exchanges among the alumni no matter if they knew each other before as Swiss food is their shared memory and common language.

It is our wish to provide opportunities for alumni to meet up once in a while to catch up with old friends and make new friends, and to feel that their study experience does not finish after their returns, it is in fact a long-lasting story which will develop further with new elements added over time, and we are here to support and connect each of them.

By Science Technology and Education Section of the Embassy of Switzerland in Beijing.

Swiss Day 2016 @ the International Culture Festival of Peking University: a focus on Innovation

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October 23 could have been a dull and cold Sunday, announcing the beginning of a long and harsh winter. This was maybe true everywhere else in north China, but definitely not at Peking University where the annual International Culture Festival took place.  

Among the 60 countries promoting themselves to thousands of visitors, the Swiss booth had the honour to be the largest one. While our country benefits from a positive image in China, its achievements in the fields of innovation, education and research remain usually unknown to the general public. For this reason, our Swiss booth focused on the theme of Innovation, with a powerful slogan printed on the t-shirts of our dedicated team of volunteers from the Swiss Embassy and Peking University: “We Innovate”.

In order to deliver this message, the Swiss booth presented several explanatory panels highlighting Switzerland’s innovative strength and competitiveness, the key factors behind its success and some concrete examples of Swiss innovative projects and researches. This message was further promoted with TV screens broadcasting different videos about Swiss innovation. Furthermore, visitors also had the chance to try the smallest portable wireless scanner of the world and a cutting-edge scanner mouse invented by a Swiss start-up (Dacuda).

More than a simple exhibition on innovation, the concept of our Swiss booth was to provide both a culinary and intellectual experience at the same time. For food lovers - and no doubt that Chinese people are - we had an almost endless mountain of chocolate bars provided by our generous sponsors Lindt and Nestlé, as well as a chocolate fountain allowing our visitors to try some melted chocolate with fresh fruits. However, in order to have the right to taste our mouth-watering chocolates, visitors had first to submit a quiz about Swiss Innovation. The answers could be found on the panels with the help of our dynamic team of volunteers. At the end of the day, what seemed a never-ending chocolate mountain in the morning had disappeared.

The successful promotion of Switzerland’s innovation in a stimulating and pleasant atmosphere was not only reflected in the great smile of the thousands of visitors, but also in our guestbook where visitors could leave comments. We received some very friendly and touching messages such as « I Love Switzerland » or « Switzerland and China are forever friends », as well as many messages praising our booth to be the « best» and the «most technologically advanced» one. Lastly, many comments proved that our booth was able to raise awareness about Switzerland’s innovative strength: « Switzerland is really an innovative country, impressive! ».