The Duke of York visits China 2018

The Duke of York has been visiting China this week, carrying out a series of engagements across the country as well as opening Pitch@Palace China 2.0.

At the beginning of HRH's visit, The Duke was received by Professor Shushen Li, Vice President of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.  The group then visited the FAST Observatory where The Duke was received by Professor Suijian Xue, Deputy Director General of The National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (NAOC).

The Duke visited the observation deck where he saw a 500 metre aperture spherical telescope – the largest of its kind in the world.

Afterwards, The Duke visited a Chinese Craft Project which supports local seamstress to find a market for their handmade products. 

The Duke also held an audience with President Xi at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

During his visit to China, The Duke also attended the China International Big Data Industry Expo 2018, a platform for the global big data community to discuss industry trends.

The Duke then toured  Guizhou University, one of the largest universities in Southwest China with over 30,000 students. HRH then toured the Innovation Centre and the Academy of Chinese Culture.

Part of the focus of The Duke's visit, who is also the Chancellor of The University of Huddersfield, was to speak to the University's President about how the two universities could collaborate in the future.

The Duke then opened the Pitch@Palace China Bootcamp 2.0 at Peking University. The Duke of York founded Pitch@Palace in 2014, recognising the profound role that Entrepreneurship is playing, and will continue to play in the future of the United Kingdom and Global economy. The initiative now takes place across the world including Australia, Bahrain and across Africa.

The Duke of York listened to 3 minute pitches from all 42 entrepreneurs on a range of ideas from technologies to help diabetes patients, an on-demand platform to car share, and innovating traditional Chinese medicine.

This year, over 20,000 people applied to take part in Pitch at Palace in China.