The Grand Opening of the McGill Club in Shanghai

PublishDate:06 Nov 2018  Click:16890

Nov. 6, 2018 Shanghai-Cocktail Reception and Ribbon-Cutting ceremony of the McGill club in Shanghai were solemnly held. The guests of the ceremony also included the GMSCM admission director Mr. MA Shuqun, Mr. JI Peiwei from GMSCM 2016, Mr. YIN Deqiang from GMSCM2017, Ms. CHEN Xiaomei, Ms. HU Congzhu and Ms. ZHENG Yinxiao from GMSCM2018.

The event was held in KFS Architects Inc. Canada, No.516, Xingfeng Road, Shanghai, which will be a new place for McGill Shanghai alumni’s  meeting, relaxing and cooperating. McGill alumni from Shanghai as well as other cities attended the event that night.

The ceremony was held by Vice-Principal of University Advancement Mr. Marc Weinstein. He welcomed everyone who came here to celebrate together for the official opening of Shanghai club. China and McGill have been connected with each other for long. He also announced that McGill will celebrate it’s 200th anniversary in 3 years.

The Consul-general of Canada in Shanghai, Mr. Weldon Epp gave a speech. He mentioned the CIE (Chinese Import Expo) this week. He said Chinese consumers pursue high-quality products as well as higher education, so it is a good time to talk about the cooperation among Canada, Quebec and McGill. In terms of education, he added, China and Canada can work together.

Then Mr. Francois Lepine, Mr. Robert Beaudry and Dr. Wilson Wong spoke on the ceremony on behalf of Quebec, Montreal government and Office of Shanghai Association.

Mr. Peter Guo-Hua Fu also made a speech. Peter was known for his $12-million gift to McGill which is the largest donation from mainland of China in history of McGill. Peter provided the space, without which this event couldn’t be held. He said anyone who come to Shanghai and need a space can come here. Anyone who needs some information about McGill can also come here. This is McGill station in China.

After the speech, the following was Ribbon-Cutting, for celebrating the official opening of McGill club of Shanghai.

The last part was lottery.  I'm glad to be the last lucky guy to win McGill's draw.

This year, for the first time, a Chinese student is the No.1 among international students who study in McGill. In the past, it was always international students from US who ranked the first, followed by those from France who won No.2 or No.4. Chinese students usually were No.2 or No.3, followed by Indian students.

Last year, the first McGill annual alumni dinner party was held in Shanghai by Principal of McGill, Suzanne Fortier. With the support of alumni, the Shanghai Alumni Office was established in Desautels Faculty of Management. Now, there are 2 Shanghai Space of McGill.

For connecting alumni together tighter, apart from online events, every Friday KFS building will be the best place for alumni to know each other better. On the last Friday of each month, there will be happy hours, which means Peter Fu will buy beer for everyone.

Chatting with many alumni that night, I could see many of them had worked in Canada or US for many years. They came to Shanghai and other cities in China for job promotion. Lots of them knew the GMSCM program in China and were glad to see more and more GMSCMers join the big McGillian family.

Looking forward to the next alumni event.

(GMSCM 2017 YIN Deqiang, Photo from:https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/0x5KVxRvD5iQCg7JIefAZA)