Today Thursday, the King and Queen were officially welcomed in Beijing by The President of The People’s Republic of China, Hu Jintao, in the Great Hall of the People.
The King opened Ericsson’s Asia headquarters in Beijing, the Ericsson Tower. In attendance were the Mayor of Beijing, Ericsson’s China director, the Swedish Ambassador and representatives from the Government and Swedish business life.
While the King did the above, Queen Silvia visited the Ditan Hospital, where the director presented the hospital’s work to her and focused especially on their HIV/Aids programme. The Queen held a speech and was presented with a gift. After that the Queen visited the Red Ribbon Foundation’s hospital for HIV/Aids patients, and she spoke to patients and volunteers.
In the evening, the Chinese hosts gave an official banquet, and then the King and Queen flew to the capital of the Guangdong province, Guangzhou. It is China’s biggest city and a two thousand year old port city that has played a crucial part in China’s trade with the world.
All pictures except the last one is from the opening of the new Ericsson headquarters.
The first two pictures are by Jonas Ekströmer/Scanpix via the Royal Court, pictures nr 3 & 4 are from China Daily, pictures nr 5 & 6 are from China Foto Press, and the last one if from the Olympic Village, by Jonas Ekströmer/Scanpix via the Royal Court.
Photo 1-2:"BEIJING, CHINA-JULY 20, 2006: The Swedish Queen Silvia receives the flower from children in the sun village on July 20, 2006, in Beijing, China.The Swedish Queen Silvia comes to care the children of the prisoners Beijing Sun Village Research Institute for Helping Special Childrenin at Shunyi district of Beijing suburb during her visit in China." Photos by Lu Weiwei/ChinaFotoPress
Photo 3: "Swedish Queen Silvia cuts the red ribbon during the opening ceremony of a health center at the Sun Village, a village set up for the children of jailed convicts, in Shunyi near Beijing Thursday, July 20, 2006. She attended a birthday party for 14 children who were having birthdays in July. Swedish King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia are on a six-day state visit to China." Photo by AP Photo/EyePress
On Friday, in Guangzhou, Their Majesties attended the opening of the exhibition “Treasures from the Swedish Trade with China” arrangd by the Gallery Astley together with the Guangzhous Museum of Art, and the King opened a Swedish art exhibition in the Guangzhous Art Museum.
After a lunch, the King and Queen boarded “Götheborg” for the final sail to the port of Zhou Tou Zui, were it was escorted by a djonk. The King held a short speech at the arrival.
On Friday evening, Their Majesties hosted a dinner at the White Swan Hotel with entertainment by Swedish artsts and a big fireworks display.
Yesterday Saturday, the Swedish State Visit to China was concluded in Guangzhou.
The last day was devoted to seminars about trade, development and trade connections between Sweden and China. The Queen visited Volvo’s showroom in Guangzhou.
In the evening, ten chefs from Guangzhou’s best restaurants cooked for a thousand guests at a dinner hosted by the municipality of Guangzhou, held in the Dongfang Hotel.
In the evening the King and Queen left China for Sweden by airplane. The King and Queen will now spend private holiday time at Solliden on Öland.
Picture by Jonas Ekströmer/Scanpix via the Royal Court.
I must say that the media coverage of this state visit has been very bad, there are almost no pictures at all. And it´s even stranger beacuse they have showed a little of it on the news, wich is very rare in sweden, and then they have reported that the media interest in china have been huge with over 50 journalists/tv crews cowering every step their majestys have taken. So why aren´t there any pics? probably it is the Swedish/European press that is uninterested (has vacation). Well lets hope that more pictures will find their way into this board. Don´t we have any member from China that can post som pictures and reports for us?
Thanks so much GrandDuchess for your efforts to find more pics!
By now I'm wondering if the 'bad' turnout of pics & reporting about this state visit might have a political aspect too. Obviously Chinese photo agencies were very busy on the day of arrival, providing plenty of photographs which were picked up everywhere, by Getty, Scanpix etc. - and then, nothing.
As China is not exactly a shining example of democracy, with a media largely controlled by a government that's certainly not too fond of the idea of constitutional monarchy, could it be that somebody pulled the stops here, especially because TM's arrival caused a lot of public interest in China?
We get to see nothing but the most boring pics from the following four days which were actually packed with engagements for both the King and the Queen and, maybe most signifiant, there's not a single pic from the grand welcome banquet hosted by China's president last Thursday.
A bit of 'foul play' involved here for political reasons?
Thanks to all for the information and few pictures of the visit to China.
There are very few pictures of the visit. By zumapress I see more pictures (in little). Perhaps everyone (purple platinum?) can posting (in larger version) here, thanks.
Thanks for posting the picture.
Is this picture taken at first day (18th July) in China (evening celebration of the government in Guanghong)?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Larzen
From the "gala" at the theatre, the King looks like he lost a bet:o
scanpix picture
GrandDuchess, thanks for the lovely pictures from "Chinafotopress". Unfortunatelly I cann't lock in the agency. Can you help me?
No more pictures from this agency of the visit?
Quote:
Originally Posted by GrandDuchess
Photo 1-2:"BEIJING, CHINA-JULY 20, 2006: The Swedish Queen Silvia receives the flower from children in the sun village on July 20, 2006, in Beijing, China.The Swedish Queen Silvia comes to care the children of the prisoners Beijing Sun Village Research Institute for Helping Special Childrenin at Shunyi district of Beijing suburb during her visit in China." Photos by Lu Weiwei/ChinaFotoPress
Photo 3: "Swedish Queen Silvia cuts the red ribbon during the opening ceremony of a health center at the Sun Village, a village set up for the children of jailed convicts, in Shunyi near Beijing Thursday, July 20, 2006. She attended a birthday party for 14 children who were having birthdays in July. Swedish King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia are on a six-day state visit to China." Photo by AP Photo/EyePress
GrandDuchess, thanks for the lovely pictures from "Chinafotopress". Unfortunatelly I cann't lock in the agency. Can you help me?
No more pictures from this agency of the visit?
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