STORY: German beer festival held in N China city
DATELINE: Sept. 16, 2023
LENGTH: 00:01:47
LOCATION: TAIYUAN, China
CATEGORY: CULTURE

SHOTLIST:
1. various of German Beer Festival
2. SOUNDBITE 1 (English): JOE SCHERZ, Edelweiss-Power Band
3. various of German Beer Festival
4. SOUNDBITE 2 (English): ALVARO RAUTENBERG, General Manager of Kempinski Hotel in Taiyuan

STORYLINE:

A four-day German beer festival is being held at the Kempinski Hotel in Taiyuan, north China's Shanxi Province.

The event features authentic German beer and all kinds of German delicacies including pork knuckles and sausages. Music bands are also invited to stage performances to add to the event some festive atmosphere.

SOUNDBITE 1 (English): JOE SCHERZ, Edelweiss-Power Band
"It's perfect. It's a German restaurant, and the people know how to make party. They come with colleagues, with friends. They drink the beer together, they take their meal together. It's perfect. People all over the world like to celebrate this kind of festival. You cannot explain exactly why, but this is the magic all over the world. It doesn't matter in Asia, Europe, Africa, everywhere."

SOUNDBITE 2 (English): ALVARO RAUTENBERG, General Manager of Kempinski Hotel in Taiyuan
"In 2017, a couple of years ago, I actually came to the city of Taiyuan, and then I asked, did you ever do a beer fest? No, boss, it will not work, and I said why doesn't it work? So this is where I started to work together with the team to see if we can do a kind of October fest. We try to do it every year as a tradition. Populations do understand each other. I think this is the most important so that we all know each other's culture, we all value each other's culture, and we can honor each other's culture."

Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Taiyuan, China.
(XHTV)