History

Before introducing the Rotary Club of Beijing, a bit of history.
The first meeting leading towards the establishment of the Rotary Club Peking took place over tea on January 18th 1923 when fifteen Americans and one Chinese met in the Wagon Lits Hotel in Peking.
The RC Peking with 22 charter member, was finally admitted by Rotary International (RI) on August 30, 1924.
The Club ceased to function on December 8th 1941 when the Wagon Lits Hotel, which served as the club’s headquarter, was taken over by the Japanese for their own use for many years.
RI re-admitted the RC of Peiping with thirty charter members on August 14th 1946, giving it the old Club No. 1814.
On July 18th 1950, RI approved once again the change of the name to Rotary Club of Peking.
On June 26th 1951 RI terminated the membership of the RC Peking and declared the Charter null and void.

Read the full story: RCBhistory by GVK

The item “Provisional Rotary Club Beijing” was placed on the agenda of the June 2001 RI Board meeting. The RI board passed the motion to grant provisional status not only to Beijing but Shanghai as well, on 16 June 2001.
The Rotary Club of Beijing (Provisional) on 31 March 2005 had 53 members and 7 honorary members. President: Mosud Mannan – President Elect: Carl-Ludwig Dörwald.
On 8 February 2006 The Rotary Club of Beijing was formally chartered by RI, signed by RI President Carl-Wilhelm Stenhammar.
In that Charter year the Club had 57 members from about 16 different countries with Carl- Ludwig Doerwald – Charter President 2005-2006.
RCB received the new charter on 3 April 2014 referring to the original charter date of 30 August 1924.

What is Rotary, Rotaract & Interact?

Rotary International (https://www.rotary.org/en) is the world’s largest member charity organization with over 1.2 million members belonging to approximately 35,000+ clubs in over 200 countries and territories.
Founded in 1906 in Chicago by Paul Harris and a group of Chicago business philanthropists, it has its current headquarters located in Evanston IL and administers the world’s largest charity trust fund with more than $2 billion which has been significantly boosted by major contributions from the Gates Foundation and Warren Buffet; both of whom have historical family ties to Rotary.

Rotary International’s current Global Flagship Project is called ‘Polio Plus’ which is in its 36th year and has successfully reduced the global headcount of Polio sufferers from more than 350,000 at the campaign commencement to close to zero globally today and zero cases in India for more than 5 years.
See the details here: Rotary_introduction
and: Rotary_factsheet

Sadly we had to terminate our two Rotaract Clubs, due to lack of student members. We still have the Dulwich and ISB Interact Clubs.

RCB is back!

Rotary Club of Beijing, District 0052, Club Number: 60724.
In January 2022:
  Number of Members: 30
  Average age: 53
  Male – 89% Female – 11%

I became myself a member on 11 January 2005.
RCB has been involved in many projects serving the community.
Some: Gift of Life (surgeries for congenital heart disease), The Library Project, and many more.
Current examples: surgeries for hypospadias and HOPE (Horses Offering People Enrichment), among other.
See https://www.beijing1980.com/2017/04/13/hypospadias-surgeries-need-support/