Former Vice Mayor Wang Shuzu, Dean Joan Remington and Students from FIU School of Hospitality and Tourism Management Celebrate the Launch of the 2010 China Wine & Food Festival-Tianjin
On September 18, 2010, faculty and students from Florida International University’s School of Hospitality and Tourism Management teamed up at the school’s Tianjin, China campus to produce the first China Wine & Food Festival-Tianjin. Partnering with the Tianjin University of Commerce, FIU welcomed more than 1,000 visitors who tasted a wide selection of wines, sampled world-class food and watched famous chefs demonstrate their different cooking styles while strolling through Tianjin’s Italian Style District.
During the one-day event in Tianjin, visitors enjoyed samples from over 40 wineries and 20 top restaurants. Several famous chefs showed off their talents during cooking demonstrations, including Beijing’s Chef Da Dong and well-known western chef, Max Levy. Similar to the South Beach version of FIU’s event, proceeds collected during the festivities will be used for China students enrolled in FIU’s Marriott Tianjin China Program.
“Florida International University was pleased to host the first ever China Wine & Food Festival-Tianjin as a fun and exciting way to help our students gain hospitality experience, as well as raise money for the school’s scholarship fund in China,” said Dean Joan Remington. “We were confident that we could leverage our expertise with the South Beach event in a way that would generate excitement and exposure for our program in Tianjin. We were thrilled with the result, as were our students, sponsors, exhibitors and all who attended.”
The festival was a cooperative project between FIU and TUC, strongly supported by Tianjin’s government. Launched in 2006 as the first joint hospitality management program between the Chinese government and an American university, FIU’s Tianjin program has been lauded as an impressive new endeavor by the international hospitality and tourism community. The $50 million University Center was fully funded by the Chinese government and sits on 80 acres of land in Tianjin, which is 60 miles southeast of Beijing. The center has a capacity for 2,000 students and is FIU’s largest international program.