On a beautiful spring day – 29th of March 2019– YAFA took its members to visit the Embassy of Iceland in Beijing. The Embassy opened in 1995 and not only represents Iceland vis-a-vis China but also Cambodia, Laos, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam. The Embassy is located in the Chaoyang district of Beijing surrounded by Embassies of other nations. In fact, the Icelandic Embassy shares a building with the Estonian Embassy, which shows a great example of the strong Scandinavian-Baltic cooperation in foreign relations.
The Embassy gave the students a very warm welcome and the Ambassador himself, Mr Gunnar Snorri Gunnarsson gave a short lecture introducing various aspects of Iceland political situation, its history, its society, lifestyle, and climate and resources.
At the beginning of his presentation, Mr Gunnarsson mentioned that he had earlier that day had a meeting with the Icelandic Minister of Education who will be visiting China in May this year. They hope that Iceland and China are able to further improve their educational production. As an example of this cooperation, the Icelandic language is already being taught in Chinese Universities such as Beijing Foreign Studies University.
Iceland is very famous for its clean, unpolluted nature. As Mr Gunnarsson mentioned, one of the main reasons why Iceland has one of the cleanest society in the world is that they have abundant geothermal energy. Icelanders use this energy to heat up their houses and create electricity, making Iceland a comfortable and practical place to live in all year round. Mr. Gunnarsson also mentioned that even though Japanese car brands have for a long time been the most popular brands in Iceland, he hoped that the fast development of electric car technology in China would make Chinese cars the preferred option for Icelanders in the future, as this would also help to make the cities of Iceland even cleaner and more sustainable.
The Ambassador also talked about the history of Iceland, which spans over more than a thousand years and began when Norwegian men left Norway in the 9th century in search for a new home. On their way, many of them made a stop in Ireland and brought with them Irish women to the island, which they then named “Iceland”. For this reason, Icelanders have a genetical and cultural heritage from both Norway and Ireland. Many of the great Sagas were written in Iceland during those first centuries of its history and because of the remoteness of Iceland, the language has remained much the same so that Icelanders today can in some part still read these old sagas.
Mr Gunnarsson mentioned that this year Icelanders were celebrating the 30th anniversary of beer, whereas the prohibition of beer ended 30 years ago. On this special occasion, the students were offered to taste a selection of Icelandic beers. From 1915, there was a total prohibition on alcohol, but due to a trade dispute Iceland eventually allowed the import of Spanish and Portuguese wines, however, the prohibition on beer lasted until 1989.
On a more political note, Mr Gunnarsson talked about Iceland's decision to not become a member of the European Union, which he believed in some part was due to Iceland‘s willingness to preserve its newly gained independence. Iceland went through a long process to become independent from the Danish Crown and has therefore been hesitant to give away its sovereignty. Nevertheless, Iceland has stayed in good terms with its neighbours and did become a part of The European Free Trade Association in 1970.
After Mr Gunnarsson’s general introduction on Iceland, the First Secretary Mr Sveinn K. Einarsson gave the students a more detailed introduction to Iceland-China trade, historical and cultural connections as well as the growth of tourism in Iceland. He explained how exports from Iceland to China have grown considerably in the past two years and the number of Chinese tourists going to Iceland has increased significantly in the past eight years. Mr Einarsson, who was once a foreign student in China, said that at that time many Chinese people had never heard about Iceland, but that has been changing in the last few years and Iceland has become a popular tourist destination for the Chinese and people all around the world. According to Mr Einarsson, this increasing interest can be attributed to three things. First, is the infamous volcanic eruption in 2010 at Eyjafjallajökull Glacier, which made global headlines. Second, is the appearance of Icelandic landscape in various famous films and television shows, such as Interstellar, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty and Game of Thrones. Thirdly, is the success of the Icelandic national men’s football team, which qualified for both the EUFA European Championship in 2016 and the FIFA World Cup in 2018. Mr Einarsson then also mentioned many of the famous tourist spots in Iceland such as the Blue Lagoon and also the Northern Lights which many tourists hope to get a glimpse of during the winter months. These are all some of the reasons why Iceland has become one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world. Finally, he talked about an interesting link between Chinese and Icelandic society, which is the Icelandic horse. Icelanders are very proud of the local horse, which is different from the horses on mainland Europe but is genetically similar to the horses in northern China and Mongolia. A possible reason for this is that during the Mongolian conquest in Europe in the 13th century, some of their horses were bought by Icelandic merchants and brought to Iceland.
After being introduced to Iceland and the embassy, the students were given a chance to ask the diplomats further questions. The students were interested in understanding the implications of Iceland‘s decision to not join the European Union, the relations between China and Iceland in a historical context, and the effect of Icelandic environment and culture on famous Icelandic musicians in recent times. The Ambassador and Mr Einarsson thoroughly answered all their questions and gave the students a better insight into the country of Iceland.
The visit was very successful, the weather could not have been better and everyone enjoyed this opportunity to learn about Iceland and to meet people serving as diplomats in China. The YAFA Organisers are truly grateful to be able to make this kind of events become a reality, connecting embassies in China to students from all over the world, possibly inspiring them in their pursuit of becoming political figures on the international stage as well. We want to thank the Icelandic Embassy for receiving us and making this visit so successful, and we also want to thank all of our members, who we hope to see again in our next event.
Comments