State Visit from China: March 30 - April 1st, 2014

[Marika86]

At the invitation of Their Majesties the King and Queen, His Excellency Mr. Xi Jinping, President of the People's Republic of China, and Ms. Xi Peng Liyuan will pay a State Visit to Belgium from March 30 to April 1st, 2014

De Belgische Monarchie: Home - Actueel - Agenda - Staatsbezoek in België - Volksrepubliek China

Place Royale ‏@RTLPlaceRoyale 1ère visite d'Etat du Règne du Roi Philippe : le Président de la République populaire de #chine sera en #Belgique du 30/3 au 1/4/2014

[Al_bina]

Thanks for the information!
Hopefully there will be a gala banquet with tiaras.

[GömdNatt]

Originally Posted by Al_bina

Thanks for the information!
Hopefully there will be a gala banquet with tiaras.

I am trying not to get my hopes up, but it would be nice. Especially if Mathilde were to wear one of Fabiola's tiaras.

[Marengo]

Well, it is a state visit after all, so why not a tiara and orders? I think the nine provinces is most fitting as she didn't wear it in public yet the tiara has been worn by three of her predecessors.

[Stefan]

Originally Posted by Marengo

Well, it is a state visit after all, so why not a tiara and orders? I think the nine provinces is most fitting as she didn't wear it in public yet the tiara has been worn by three of her predecessors.

I think tiaras and orders yes as at all State Visits in Belgium the dresscode at the State Banquet was white tie. But i don't think she will wear the full version of the nine provinces tiara for this State Visit.

[Al_bina]

Hopefully Princess Astrid and Archduke Lorenz will be able to attend. Prince Laurent will be recovering in the hospital.

[Tilia C.]

Queen Paola wore the full 9-Provinces tiara mainly at State Visits from other Royals. I believe that Queen Mathilde will do the same, so I expect her to wear either her laurel tiara or only the bandeau of 9-Provinces.

Do you think that Albert and Paola will be present, like Beatrix attended the state banquet this week?

[wartenberg7]

Do you think that Albert and Paola will be present, like Beatrix attended the state banquet this week?[/QUOTE]




You can only speculate because, without the exception of Leopold III, there haven´t been abdicated Kings in Belgium before....
Princess Juliana attended state visits from now and then at the first years of her daughter´s reign before she almost withdrew completely from public.
I know that the Queen of England paid a, more or less, private visit to King Leopold and his 2nd wife, when she paid a state visit to Belgium in 1966, because he and Princess Lilian didn´t attend any engagements or banquets at this visit.

[wartenberg7]

[QUOTE=Tilia C.;1650769]Queen Paola wore the full 9-Provinces tiara mainly at State Visits from other Royals. I believe that Queen Mathilde will do the same, so I expect her to wear either her laurel tiara or only the bandeau of 9-Provinces.



I really do expect Queen Fabiola to hand over some of her tiaras to the new Queen as I was expecting this to give the items to Queen Paola before, which she never did!
She doesn´t use them anymore, didn´t even use a tiara when she still attended state banquets some years ago and it doesn´t make sense for the pieces to stay locked away in the vaults!
I never understood why Queen Paola as the wife of a reigning monarch, was only in charge of two tiaras (one of them a very humble one) despite of having more tiaras within the belgian royal family...

[Stefan]

[QUOTE=wartenberg7;1651084]

Originally Posted by Tilia C.

Queen Paola wore the full 9-Provinces tiara mainly at State Visits from other Royals. I believe that Queen Mathilde will do the same, so I expect her to wear either her laurel tiara or only the bandeau of 9-Provinces.



I really do expect Queen Fabiola to hand over some of her tiaras to the new Queen as I was expecting this to give the items to Queen Paola before, which she never did!
She doesn´t use them anymore, didn´t even use a tiara when she still attended state banquets some years ago and it doesn´t make sense for the pieces to stay locked away in the vaults!
I never understood why Queen Paola as the wife of a reigning monarch, was only in charge of two tiaras (one of them a very humble one) despite of having more tiaras within the belgian royal family...

I think the Issue is simple that it were gifts to her and belong to her personally. It would be different if the new King would be her son or daughter but so there is no reason why she should items who where gifted to her hand over to ther sister-in-law or now to the wife of her nephew.

[GömdNatt]

Originally Posted by Marengo

Well, it is a state visit after all, so why not a tiara and orders? I think the nine provinces is most fitting as she didn't wear it in public yet the tiara has been worn by three of her predecessors.

Orders yes, but we've seen the Belgians not break out tiaras before for a state visit (the Finnish one comes to mind), which is why I am not getting my hopes up. It is likely they will wear tiaras and orders, but one never knows, imo.

[wartenberg7]

[QUOTE=Stefan;1651095]

Originally Posted by wartenberg7

I think the Issue is simple that it were gifts to her and belong to her personally. It would be different if the new King would be her son or daughter but so there is no reason why she should items who where gifted to her hand over to ther sister-in-law or now to the wife of her nephew.

I don´t know if these items were personal gifts to the woman Fabiola or to the then Queen of the Belgians (I doubt that these exquisite pieces were given to her if she was simply "Senorita de Mora y Aragon)...?!
Philippe has always been regarded as a kind of "honourary son", "the son she never had", etc.
She always seemed to got along perfectly with Mathilde, the wife of the man she and King Baudouin regarded as some sort of a "son".
If the 2 tiaras I´m thinking of are really private gifts to her, she is of course legally right. But morally it´s a very weak thing to keep it without using it (She is a very old lady in a wheelchair) and a selfish thing to do! In my opinion she still ows something to Belgium and its monarchy, a country and its top institution that has given Fabiola so much! It should be in her own interest to give the monarchy, and by that the country itself, the opportunity to represent itself in the best way possible.

[maria-olivia]

King Albert Ii and Queen Paola are abroad; they did not come back for their son 's illness, so i believe they will not attend the State Visit either.
Queen Fabiola wore the Nine Province tiara easily with her hair , for Paola it was a problem as she has fine hair, with Queen Mathilde's hair it will be on its best !

[iceflower]

.

The state visit from China has started, here are pics of day 1:



** Pic 1 ** Pic 2 ** Pic 3 ** Pic 4 ** Pic 5 ** Pic 6 ** Pic 7 **


** standaard.be gallery: Xi Jinping aangekomen op Zaventem **


** belga gallery ** apa/picturedesk ** gettyimages **


** lavenir.net gallery: Xi Jinping arrive à Bruxelles pour une visite de trois jours **


** lesoir.be gallery and video: Le président chinois est arrivé à Bruxelles (photos) **


** rtl.be video: Visite du président chinois en Belgique: les affiches d'un spectacle de danse dissimulées **

[wartenberg7]

Seeing the King handing out the order of Leopold to the president I guess there´ll be a full white tie/ tiara state banquet tonight indeed!

[Al_bina]

Thanks for the updates!
I am looking forward to seeing the photos from the state banquet.

[LadyFinn]

According to this article, the state dinner is tomorrow evening.
Xi Jinping opent pandapaviljoen in Pairi Daiza - De Standaard
Translation

[wartenberg7]

Yes, very unusual the state banquet taking place on the 2nd day of an official visit, but "Royalty" say so, too:
Royalty Online

Perhaps this is because today´s a sunday (which is very unusual for a state visit to start also...)?!

[stephanievl]

This evening there is a prive dinner with the King and Queen in Laeken palace, also home of philippe and Mathilde.

[maria-olivia]

Wartenberg, it is difficult to organize a State Visit of a Sunday. I am looking forward Queen Mathilde's tiara !