On November 17, 2016, the School of Political Science and Public Administration (SPSPA) organized the first academic salon and birthday celebration for its international students at the Chuang Café of the Student Activity Center. The birthday celebration was meant to celebrate international students of the school whose birthday fell in the month from SeptembertoNovember.

In attendance were the Mr. Xie Jihua, vice-chairman of School Council of SPSPA, Dr. Ivy Liu Yan, Ph.D., University of Hong Kong, Miss Zhang Mengmeng, the coordinator of the schooland other three dignitaries fromthe school. The other individuals at the programme were 2 second-year birthday celebrant students and the entire class of 2016 international masters’ students of the school.

The programme began with the introduction of the guest speaker and the delivery of the keynote address by Mr Xie Jihua on behalf of management of SPSPA. In his address, he welcomed participants and introduced the goals and objectives of the programme. He stated that the mission of the academic salon and birthday celebration was aimed at contributing to the academic, psychological, social and full development of international students of SPSPA. Through the group birthday celebration, the spirit of fraternity and togetherness was also hoped to be developed in the students. In addition, Mr Xie Jihua proceeded to present cards to the birthday celebrants.
During the salon section, Dr. Ivy delivered a presentation on“Research on Tourism and Retail Property Market under the Framework of Urban Management: The case of Hong Kong.” This was done in three parts – Brief Introduction, The Impact of Tourist Shoppers on the Pricing of Street Level Retail Shops in Hong Kong, and PhD Study in Hong Kong.
In the first part, she gave a brief introduction of herself and research interests. She advanced to reveal the background, research questions, literature review and hypothesis, methodology, data and variable, empirical analyses and conclusion in the second part. She identified that increase in tourist shoppers and retail property price boom in Hong Kong informed her studies. Using the Individual Visit Scheme (IVS), a policy adopted 2003 to allow travelers from Mainland China to visit Hong Kong and Macau on an individual basis she analyzed how the policy has impacted tourism and retail property price in the country. After testing her hypothesis she was able to connect tourism industry and retail property market, and how IVS has enhanced tourism in Hong Kong. During the last part of her presentation, she elucidated the importance of conducting research works, and balancing work and social activities. She concluded the presentation by advising students to see life as a journey not destination.

A short birthday celebration was then held for the celebrants and group photographs taken. The celebrants expressed their appreciations to the school before the programme concluded.