Common Talk Weeklyshuang yu zhou kan
issue date

X'mas Eve, Xiamen style
December 31, 2003

A festive Christmas Eve

On the Christmas Eve of December 24, 2003, the Marco Polo Hotel（马哥孛罗东方大酒店） was filled with Christmas ambience and spirit. Joyous guests had a lot of fun at the Marco Polo Ballroom’s party while enjoying wonderful live shows and an exciting lucky draw as well as savoring the traditional Christmas dishes and delicious global cuisine!

The Associate Christmas Choir’s performance in the Marco Polo Xiamen was one of the highlights of Christmas Eve， December 24， 2003.

Christmas Charity Party got warm reactions
By Linda

“260 Yuan, 280 Yuan and 300 Yuan!” “300 Yuan once, 300 Yuan twice, 300 Yuan three times”, “Sold!” Who would have thought that two music CDs could be sold at the price of RMB300? This happened at a charity auction at the second Christmas Eve Party at the International Seaside Hotel（厦门国际会展酒店）.

There were some special guests invited to the Christmas Eve Party. Eight children aged three or four from the Xiamen Society Welfare Center gave a dancing performance at the party. In order to give a hand to help these kids to have medical treatment, the International Seaside Hotel decided to hold this charity auction at their Christmas Eve Party. Christmas cookies, ice cream cakes with fruit cooked by the hotel chef, tourism tickets and presents from the guests were sold by auction. The people who took part in the party showed a lot of generosity and kindness. A beautiful cookie house was sold for RMB 360 Yuan to a little boy who was supported by his parents. The atmosphere in the hall was lively. Eleven items were up for auction and the total amount raised was over RMB 4800.

After the charity auction, there were many programs including beautiful dances, a magic performance, orchestra performance and the exciting lottery. Finally, a family who bought two items at the charity auction won first prize—a round trip ticket for two people valued at over RMB 6000.

Full entertainment, sheer fun

More than five hundred guests, including some foreign friends working in Xiamen, were attracted by the wonderful performance by Xiamen Song and Dance Theatre and lucky draws brought the excitement to a climax at the Crowne Plaza Harbourview Xiamen（厦门海景皇冠假日酒店）. Finally, a donation ceremony expressed the hotel and guests’ generosity. Five per cent of the price of all the tickets was donated to China Hope Project to help children with schooling.