UWEE BRITF in Shaoxing

On 20 April I left for Zhejiang Yuexiu University in Shaoxing, Zhejiang, along with William Spiers and David Li (UWEE). See about BRITF here.

After landing in Hangzhou a car brought us to the very large and impressive campus where we stayed in the model hotel and restaurant, operated by the students of YIHA (Yuexiu Institute of Hospitality Administration), located within Zhejiang Yuexiu University of Foreign Languages, 2801 Qunxian Road, Yuecheng District, Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province.

We had breakfast, lunch and dinner in the Milan Restaurant, and coffee in the coffeeshop. We had the opportunity to taste a variety of dishes, and coffee. All very well done by the student staff! We gave them feedback also on how to improve some details. The menus are all hand-made… Cute…

About the university

Zhejiang Yuexiu University of Foreign languages is financed by a private Chinese biomedical group that also runs some five-star hotels (Marriott and other).
It has two campuses, this is the new one, with 10,000 students, the other campus counts 7,000 students.
It is a brand-new campus with modern buildings, state of the art class rooms, very modern, integrated microphone system, many screens.

It includes YIHA, YueXiu Institute of Hospitality Administration, 1200 students. It offers two undergraduate International Bachelor Degree programs: International Hospitality Management and International Events Management. Tuition fee would be about RMB 20,000 per year. Dormitory cost some RMB 4,000 per year. Total of four years. Extensive internships included.

See their introduction: YIHA Standard PresentationIPAD

The Library

We visited the impressive Library building with all possible facilities, see the pictures. We wondered if any university in Europe could boast having something similar.

Later on I donated my two books to the library.

The seminar

On 21 April Easter Sunday we first met the dean of YIHA, Georges Ubbelohde (from Belgium!).
The International Seminar on Internationalization and localization of Event Education invited dozens of universities and colleges event management leaders from all around the country to discuss ways to promote the development of event education in China so as to nurture more international event professionals.
Seminar was followed by a group photo in front of the Library.
Organized by: Zhejiang Convention and Exhibition Association; Zhejiang Oriental Convention and Exhibition Industry Research Institute; Zhejiang Yuexiu University of Foreign Languages.

Keynote speeches:

– William Spiers: “Internationalisation & Localisation of Exhibition Education – INTERNATIONAL VISIONS AND FEELINGS”
– Gilbert Van Kerckhove: ” International Exhibitions – Do’s and Don’t”

We later had lunch in the university canteen, huge and so clean.
In the afternoon we were given a tour of the library and campus, with Evelyn (Hangzhou), Holy and Chen. In the rain. The campus also has several shops and small restaurants.

Sightseeing

We were spoiled by our two guides who took us around Shaoxing City on Monday 22 April. We learned they were selected after a competition involving some 100 candidates. Impressive, flattering…
First came Shen’s Garden, with a history of over 800 years. Known for the love story of Lu You and Tang Wan.
Later Lu Xun hometown, his birth place and home.
Later I will post more pics of the sightseeing part.
After lunch in a local restaurant we walked around and had a boat trip.

After our return to our hotel we had coffee and met a Chinese lady author,  Fiona  who was introducing her book about coaching.
To close the day we had a great dinner in Shaoxing CBD, SIJIFENGQING XUNWEI Restaurant.