Hurun UK-China Awards recognize contributors to bilateral ties

The Hurun Report, viewed as the voice of the Chinese entrepreneur, is best known for its "China Rich List" which has been published since 1999, and which ranks the wealthiest individuals in China.

It is equivalent to China's Forbes magazine and its founder Rupert Hoogewerf, whose Chinese name is Hu Run, is regarded as the "godfather" of the "China Rich List" and has established Hurun as the leading authority on tracking the rapid rise of China's business leaders.

Recognizing outstanding contributions to the UK-China relationships, the Hurun UK-China Awards 2019 was held in The Montcalm London Marble Arch on Monday, with over 300 guests attending and 20 awards presented.

Hoogewerf, the publisher of the Hurun Report, said the significance of the awards is to recognize those who made outstanding contributions to the China-UK relationship.

"There are a lot of people whose work is unrecognized. It is not an award with money, it is just an award with recognition," Hoogewerf said, adding it is both for the Chinese entrepreneurs who come to the UK and their UK counterparts who go to China.

The awards celebrate the success of organizations that have made significant contributions to building bridges between China and the UK.

Among the recipients were Aston Martin, the iconic luxury British sports car manufacturer, recognized for its outstanding contribution to UK-China relations for services to Luxury British car-making; the Kensington Wade School, the first prep school in the UK to offer English and Chinese education to pupils aged 3 to 11, for services to education; and VisitScotland, Scotland's tourism promotion agency for services to travel.

"We're absolutely delighted to receive this recognition. VisitScotland is proud to work closely with businesses across China to develop Scotland's relationship and help the Scottish tourism sector engage with this important visitor market," Christina Bruns, senior marketing manager for China & Emerging Markets at VisitScotland, said.

"Scotland has seen a huge growth in visitors from China over the last ten years. With increased air routes, including the new direct route from Beijing to Edinburgh launched last year, numbers are only expected to rise further, and we will continue to work with our partners to improve the visitor experience for Chinese travellers," Bruns added.

Hurun Chinese New Year Dinner Series aims to honor the outstanding figures and organizations that make significant contributions to relations between the destination and China in the fields of investments, trade, culture, education and sports.

Dubbed as the world's largest Chinese New Year dinner series, which will cross four continents and extend to eight cities, it kicked off in Shanghai on Jan 16, Toronto on Jan 20, New York on Jan 23, Los Angeles on Friday, London on Monday, Istanbul on Tuesday, Luxembourg on this coming Friday and ending in Sydney on Feb 17.