Although being ill, Queen Maxima nonetheless decided to participate with a smile, alongside her husband King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands at the State banquet offered for them in China on Monday night by President Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan.
In Mid-Afternoon of October 26 in Beijing (9am in the Netherlands), the Dutch Royal Court were left some doubt as to the participation of Queen Maxima that evening at the gala dinner that closed the second day of the State visit it was confirmed two hours later. And, although suffering from a kidney infection, the young woman of 44 years assumed in style this commitment.
She chose for the occasion wearing a blue-green robe adorned in the lower part of trees with twisted trunks emerging from the ground in the colors of gold. Art lovers will readily recognize that it is the evocation of a painting by Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh accompanied this dress with emerald jewelry by the Dutch designer Mattijs van Bergen, the pendant "pigeon's eye" Wilhelmina of Prussia (1751-1820) of spouse to Stadtholder Willem V, one of the most valuable emeralds of the royal family.
To take part in this banquet given her condition, Queen Maxima had preferred to stay to rest in the hotel during the day. Prior to that King Willem-Alexander attended the welcoming ceremony of the President Xi Jinping and visited the touristy hutong Dashilar, restoring a set of typical shopping streets of old Beijing. Also on Tuesday, the king had to go without his wife on the Loess Plateau in northern China.King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima of the Netherlands perform Sunday 25 to Thursday, October 29, a state visit to China. After Beijing, their program includes steps on the Loess Plateau in Shaanxi province in northern China, as well as Shanghai and Hangzhou.
Photo Credits: Paris Match