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.
