Swiss Alumni China Soirée

Swissnex China, officially representing all Swiss Public Universities in China, organises an annual event for all Swiss Alumni in China. This year is very special: not only the 70 years jubilee of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Switzerland and China takes place and the H.E. Ambassador Bernardino Regazzoni honours the event with his presence, but also the location couldn’t be more perfect: an evening cruise along the iconic Bund waterfront in Shanghai.

Pleasant atmosphere among the participants

227 Swiss Alumni enjoy the wonderful evening, some traveling from Beijing, Hong Kong, Taipei and beyond for this special occasion. 30 among the participants are from ETH.
Each university is represented by a table and its specific university flag where people stand around and talk. The ETH table is one of the most popular tables attracting people with totally different backgrounds:
Some diploma students graduated in 1990s from the old department IIIA (Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering) or IIIB (Department of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering) while some were master students in 2010s. Some old classmates hadn’t met each other for a long time, others are just making new acquaintances.
Several of the ETH Alumni attending have already become professors and now they’re teaching at Chinese universities while others just came back to China last year and are now looking for new challenges. Some Alumni work at giant companies like Huawei while others pursue their dreams in a start-up. The ETH table is surrounded by relaxed conversations and laughter; all of the Alumni seem to be proud to be part of the ETH Alumni Association.

Important visit

The event starts with the welcome address of the H.E. Ambassador Bernardino Regazzoni who travelled from Beijing to Shanghai. He is indeed the first Ambassador who attends this event. He traces today’s gathering back to the very first Alumni event organised by the Embassy in Beijing in 2008 with only 20 people attending. Now over 2,000 Chinese students choose to study in Switzerland, while more than 800 Swiss students get to study in China. The second speaker was Dr. Felix Moesner who is CEO of swissnex and science consul, and more importantly, he gained both his diploma and PhD from ETH. Dr. Felix Moesner is indeed an ETH alumnus to the core. Afterwards, each head of the Alumni chapters provides a short introduction of their chapters. Head of ETH Alumni Shanghai chapter, Jun Ma, Dipl. El-Ing. ETH 2003, introduces the ETH chapter: there are about 150 Alumni in Shanghai area, every year the chapter organises around 3 to 4 events. Jun Ma also calls for more support of Alumni but in turn, he promises to give more support to others. After the chapter talk, all of the Alumni gathered to take a picture of all participants.

Swiss style buffet

The Swiss style buffet on a 3-floor cruise along the historic Bund waterfront constitutes one of the event’s many highlights. The amazing night view of Shanghai and the delicious food accompany the networking and making of new friends.
The last surprise is the tasty present swissnex offered: Lindt chocolate, Swiss cheese, marmalade and Ricola, recalling fond memories of the time studying in Switzerland.

Thanks to swissnex for the organisation of such lovely event and thanks to ETH Zurich, we are looking forward to visit you again in the near future.