Various details from a number of articles in Billed Bladet #25, 2012.
Mary, Frederik, our Marie and her Joachim, were observed chatting merrily away, both at the welcoming of the Chinese President and prior to the gala dinner. - I notice from a picture in the magazine that Joachim, being the perfect gentleman, buried his hands in his pockets just like Frederik, no doubt so that his older brother would feel even more at ease.
While Marie at some point made Mary laugh out loud.
La charmant Marie's dress at the gala was from Rikke Gudnitz. It's in silk.
The state visit was a major sucking up to the Chinese. This was about serious money and we Danes are in many ways used-horse-dealers.
Of course there are always things that don't go according to plan.
When the Chinese President and the first lady left the plane, they greeted the DRF, but at the same time a couple of hundred Chinese members of the press also milled out of the plane and surrounded the President and the DRF, snapping away with the cameras. So they had to be ushered to the side, because the welcoming wasn't over. The President, Hu Jintao, inspected the honour guard along with QMII. Apparantly that isn't normal procedure for the President because the Chinese journalists noted that he looked very honoured.
The President and the entourage was driven to a hotel, but the DRF drivers must have been napping somewhere, because the DRF were left to stand for some time, before their cars arrived.
The Regent Couple visited China in 1979 and Prince Henrik has been in China several times. He speaks some Chinese. (Don't know whether it's Mandarin or Cantonese).
The visit was a welcoming surprise for Chinese tourists here in DK. (*) And some tourists got an extra motive for the camera. Not least at the Little Mermaid, which the President had requested to see. Apparantly H.C. Andersen's fairy tales are so open to interpretation that even when China was most Communist, they were considered most suitable for school children and as such the President and most Chinese for that matter are familiar with his works.
As it is the mermaid isn't placed in the most romantic settings in my opinion, but for this occasion a stand had been contructed for the Chinese visitors to get as close to the statue as possible. Ironically a busload of Chinese tourists were shooed away just prior to the arrival of their President, - but, that was just an extra photo for the album, so no complaints there.
As far as I know it was the first time that visiting heads of state were taken on a tour of Copenhagen harbour onboard Dannebrog. Of particular interest to the guests was the fact that the water in the harbour is now clean enough to swim in safely.
There were 300 guests for the galadinner. QMII wore a dress by Birgitte Thaulow.
The visit must be considered a huge success! Danish commerce are most delighted.
- There were some minor chirps about press coverage and demonstrators being hidden away and human rights stuff, but who cares? This was about money.
(*) They are most welcome as they spend a lot of money here, more so than most other nationalities.
