Han spent the entire summer on campus busy preparing his PhD graduation and, at the same time, a big surprise for his girlfriend Chunyue Zhang (29). Chunyue is also a PhD candidate at Wageningen University. She will obtain het PhD from the Food Quality Development Dairy Science department soon, in about six months. As she went away on business trip, Yue secretly bought an engagement ring for her and settled a special proposal plan with several friends. Sunny weather was essential to complete this plan.
The love story of Yue and Chunyue began 3 years ago. Yue had just completed his master at WUR and Chunyue came to the university starting her 4 years of PhD Research. They got to know each other through a good friend of Yue and had committed a relationship soon after their first few dates. ‘We both like each other a lot’, said Chunyue. They share similar hobbies and their passion for research, and both like the Netherlands and Wageningen city a lot. For them, Wageningen is a special place, as they’ve completed their dream in scientific research here as well as found their soulmate to complete their love life.
Chunyue always wanted to see Wageningen city and the university from a hot air balloon, but they’ve never had a chance to try due the typical windy Dutch weather and their busy work schedule. Yue therefore planned the proposal on a hot air balloon to make Chunyue’s dream come true. On 21 July, Chunyue was ‘invited’ by a group of friends to experience the hot air balloon trip, and as the balloon rose to the sky and slowly shifted to the WUR campus, Yue proposed to her. ‘I was crying from that second until the end of the trip. I’ll remember that moment forever!’, said Chunyue. ‘I had a feeling that he was going to say something to me, but I did not expect a proposal.’
‘Wageningen university is the place I met Chunyue; it is the place we live together; it is the place we shared our best memories together. Therefore, I wanted to propose to her here. It had to be here!’, said Yue with an excited voice. ‘When we will have kids in the future, we will definitely bring them back with us to visit this place together.’