EU delegation celebrates cantinental culture

EU ambassador Markus Ederer is only about halfway through his tenure in Beijing, but his first two years have given him plenty to behappy about.

The EU delegation will kick off a month of “open house” events at European embassies across Beijing on May 8 for the third year — and celebrateEurope Day on May 9. Meanwhile, Ederer has just organized a China visitby Catherine Ashton, the EU high representative for security policy and foreign affairs — one of many recenthigh-level visits on both continents.

He has been proud to support efforts to strengthen and broaden the Sino-EU strategic partnership, which celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. That has included major initiatives in sustainable urbanization, water, cyber security and defense.

In the middle of all that, Ederer also married his longtime sweetheart — Beate Grzeski, the economic counselor at the German embassy — in a ceremony on the Great Wall.

“Almost 10 years into our relationship, we decided to tie the knot in China,” he says of the ceremony“It was spiced by my Bavarian relatives coming dressed in dirndl and lederhosen, which raised a lot of attention when the whole group of about 100 went up on the Great Wall. I think the Chinese were almost as amazed at how we looked as the Europeans were amazed at the great edifice of the Great Wall.