May 1, 2004, the day that Malta, along with another nine member states, acceded to the European Union, was an historic day for Malta, the European Union and the World.

And on May 9, 2019, “Europe Day”, Malta and the other nine member states, celebrated in Beijing the 15^th Anniversary of Accession to the European Union.

The festivities were organized in the beautiful and spacious gardens of the European Union Delegation in Beijing.

The flowers were in full bloom, and the day was bright and sunny, with a cloudless blue sky.

More than 1,000 ambassadors and diplomats, local staff members of embassies, international workers and local Chinese business men and women attended.

After the sounding of the anthems of Europe and China, the EU Ambassador to China, H.E. Nicolas Chapuis made a brief speech in the presence of the Chinese Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs, H.E. Wang Chao.

Along with each of the other 27 member states, Malta had its own booth, featuring an extensive amount of promotional material provided by the Malta Tourism Authority.

The various Chinese printed brochures proved to be extremely popular with the Chinese locals.

Huge numbers queued up for the bright bags packed with items about Malta.

Among the interested visitors to the Malta booth was Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs H.E. Wang Chao.

The Vice Minister keenly rummaged through the various brochures, displaying considerable knowledge of Malta’s landscape, and pointing out the places in Malta which he has visited.

With the formalities over, it was time to relax.

Entertained by the music of a top class international band, the capacity crowd lingered on throughout the afternoon, lulled by the warmth of a sunny spring day, the fresh breeze, and the mixed scent or azaleas, marigolds, peonies, roses and zinnias.