On 11th February, 2013, the Chinese New Year Celebration Reception was co-hosted by the Confucius Institute for Business London (CIBL), the London School of Economics (LSE) and Lord Wei of Shoreditch, who is learning Chinese at CIBL.
The reception was very well attended by about 160 invited guests from the political, business, cultural, academic and media circles of the UK. Several distinguished figures gave speeches at the beginning of the reception, including Lord Wei, Chinese Minister Counsellor of Education Mr Yang Shen, Global Head, Financial Sector Policy & Head of China Affairs of HSBC Mr Charles Haswell and the Director of CIBL Mr Nick Byrne. They expressed their best wishes for the Spring Festival, recalled their pleasant experiences and cooperation with CIBL and spoke highly of the important role that CIBL has been playing in the promotion of Chinese Language Teaching and mutual understanding between UK and China.
On the whole, the event gave the guests from the UK and China a valuable opportunity to better understand each other, to seek and build cooperative relationships, and most of all, to enjoy the festive joy of the year of the snake. Guests left with a better recognition of CIBL's activities and many of them expressed a strong interest in learning Chinese with CIBL or joining future events. (CIBL Miss Yun DI)