I'm Fernando Lugris, Ambassador of Uruguay to China. I have been posted to China since December 2015, which means that I have been living in Chaoyang district for more than seven years.

There are so many opportunities to enjoy a fantastic lifestyle here in Chaoyang. I live in Liangmaqiao. It's a very pleasant area with a very vibrant business scene and a lot of restaurants and nice cafes. It is also quite close to Chaoyang Park, which is a place where I normally go during weekends to enjoy nature and the lake.

I'm a super coffee lover. Today, there has been a huge change.

We don't produce coffee in Uruguay, but we have a coffee culture in the country. And actually, there are some coffee places here in Beijing that reflect Uruguay aspects of our culture. And they also serve Mate. Mate is our national drink, is kind of an infusion like tea, but a very special one. There has been an explosion of cafes in Chaoyang district since I arrived here. We get to see amazing cafes with extraordinary coffee.

I'm very much into culture and modern scenes here in Beijing. So I really like to go to 798 to explore the galleries of art and the museums, and talk to artists here in Beijing. Because there's such a vibrant life of art in the city and especially here in Chaoyang district, that I think is one of the highlights of living in Beijing. We get to see that young Chinese people and the young Beijingers, you know, dressing up in a very cool manner, and showing their art and their expressions of life. That is very very inspiring.

You have done a lot of renovations. Today we are checking some of the changes: things getting more modern; artificial intelligence applied to things; you have robotic buses. I mean, all those things were not here when I landed in 2015.

I think Chaoyang district is a clear expression of what's going on in Beijing, and in China in general. What we see here in Chaoyang is a lot of modernisation of the whole district. So, I think, this is a city and a district with a lot of optimism where young people are happy to live here, and they feel that things are getting better and better.

Producer: Chen Jing

Planner: Li Tianxiao

Director: Zhang Wen

Cameraman: Sheng Ming

Special Support: Embassy of the Oriental Republic of Uruguay in China,

Foreign Affairs Office of Chaoyang District People’s Government of Beijing Municipality