Woman from Hangzhou in Rio Olympic Torch Relay

By Li Wei

Woman from Hangzhou in Rio Olympic Torch Relay

By Li Wei

李雪琳和贝茨受邀参观里约奥运会的“中国之家”。Li Xuelin and her husband Baron Bates visit China Home in Rio.

On July 29， 2016， Li Xuelin received an email from an assistant of Thomas Bach， president of the International Olympic Committee， inviting her to take part in the Rio 2016 Olympic Torch Relay. That day， Li Xuelin and her husband Michael Bates had just completed a 3000km walk from Buenos Aires to Rio de Janeiro to raise awareness for the 2016 UN Olympic truce and to raise funds for UNICEF. The coupled raised £250，000 for UNICEF.

She carried the Olympic fame for 200 meters as the 36th torch relay bearer in Rio on the morning of August 4th. Altogether，12，000 took part in the relay which ran from April 21 to August 5，2016. Some torch bearers were from China. Li Xuelin was the only Chinese who received the invitation from Thomas Bach directly. On the evening of August 5， Li Xuelin and her husband Michael Bates attended the opening ceremony of the 2016 Rio Olympic Games as special guests of Thomas Bach.

Li Xuelin is a native of Hangzhou， the capital city of Zhejiang province in eastern China. A successful businesswoman， she has been living in the United Kingdom for 27 years. After graduation from Zhejiang University where she studied architecture， she came to UK to work as an architect. Then she founded an international trade company， which eventually became one of the four major dealers of gifts in the country. She shifted to real estate business. Thanks to her professional knowledge of architecture and sharp business acumen， she purchased houses from the auction market and refurbished and remodeled them before putting them back on market for sale or rental. As this business mode was a success， she gave up her gift business and turned completely to real estate after Europe nosedived into a fnancial crisis in 2006.

Li Xuelin is now the current president of Zhejiang UK Association， a high-profled organization formed by Chinese who live in UK and mainly from Zhejiang province or have some connection with Zhejiang. The ZJUKA was founded in 2009 and Li was chosen as the frst president. She was also a publicity ambassador raising awareness of the G20 in Hangzhou among the Chinese community in UK.

ZJUKA is one of the most active organizations of the Chinese community in UK. It holds and hosts so many events and activities every month that Li Xuelin says she has diffculty counting them on her fngers. In February 2016， ZJUKA held a party celebrating Chinese New Year at the building of the UK Parliament. Over the past three years， ZJUKA has been honored by the Zhejiang Government for the outstanding role it has played in assist Zhejiang business people in getting started in UK.

Li Xuelin married Michael Bates in 2012. Michael Walton Bates（Baron Bates） is a Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom serving in the House of Lords since 2008 having previously represented the constituency of Langbaurgh in the House of Commons from 1992 to 1997. Since 2012 Li has played an active part in Baron Bates' long-distance walks for peace and fundraising for public projects， including those for Olympic Truce in both 2012 and 2016. Li takes care of all the background work， including planning and coordinating and fundraising and publicity. In 2015，the couple walked from Beijing to Hangzhou， the birthplace of Li Xuelin. For Bates， this long walk opened his eyes to a country that an ordinary tourist can't really experience. He drank water fetched from a 700-year-old well. He watched middle-aged and old women dance on public squares. He even played chess with an old man by the Grand Canal. Li had planned to walk with her husband during the 2016 Olympic Walk for Truce for a month before fying back to London to handle her business. But after a month， she found she needed to support her husband all the way through. So she walked all the way northward and arrived in Rio with her husband.