On 23 June Sun and myself attended the National Day in the residence of the Ambassador Paul Steinmetz. It is an event I normally attend every year. The residence is in a very unusual location, in a hutong between Dong Si Nan Da Jie and Chaoyangmen Nan Xiao Jie. The event is in the nice garden and usually the air is humid and hot as in a sauna. This year we were lucky, no air and pretty pleasant.

The building carries many souvenirs for me as I was very close to the first Luxembourg ambassador in the early eighties. He had the arduous task to renovate the building and starting the embassy when electricity was not always guaranteed in the hutong. We all lived in the Beijing Hotel at the time and I also gave my small advice during the difficult renovation work (and for the problems of rats and mice…).
Pictured are the Luxembourg ambassador as well the ambassadors of Benin, Cambodia, Philippines, Bolivia, Congo Republic, among others.