Life in the city

Beijing Rotary in 2020 (part 2)

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Board meeting 10 July 2020

This final part 2 of Beijing Rotary in 2020, other reports were published earlier.
The Rotary Club of Beijing held a board meeting in Kitty & Daniel’s Grill and Bar, near The Place. An interesting decoration as you can see in the pictures, I guess they spent tons of money on it. I personally found the food good, some of my friends were less happy.

This time no zoom, all present!
I gave the impression eating most because … I love cleaning bones…

Some more Morel’s lunches

We had other lunches in Morel’s Restaurant on 2 and 9 June 2020.

Rotaract Sanlitun had a social in Legend Beer (RIP…) on 15 June.

Major donor

I was honored to receive the crystal and pin as Major Donor (level 1) to the Paul Harris Rotary Foundation Fund.

See: https://www.rotary.org/en/donate/recognition

Rotary dinner 13 October 2020

A nice dinner again in Morel’s Restaurant, well attended by Rotarians and guests. The speaker was Dr. Paul Rochon and the topic attracted many people who were not disappointed.
Paul talked to us about how to turn sleep in something to empower… dreams coming true?  hidden side of dreams? Maybe, but surely all about sleep as Paul with 2 masters and a Ph.D is a specialist in biopsychology and expert in everything related to sleep.

He focused on “sleep chronotypes”, see: https://engineeringsleep.com/chronotypes/
His website: http://engineeringsleep.com/
I actually did the tests he mentions, also contacted him about it.

I also gave the membership certificates to two of our new members.

Beijing Rotary in 2020

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Virus year

A good start, then Beijing Rotary in 2020 became the virus year. Obviously the operation of the Rotary Club of Beijing was severely affected.

Our last memorable event was once more in the Hyatt Regency Wangjing where General Manager Till arranged a great reception where Rotarians, Rotaractors and guest had a good time. Then…

ZOOM and Morel’s

Our Rotaract Club of Beijing maintained several meetings online, with ZOOM.

When Morel’s Restaurant restarted operation, I suggested to start there some unofficial lunches, all while respecting all health measures such as social distancing, registration and hand washing. The first lunch was on 14 April and some Rotaractors also joined.

The following lunch was on 21 April 2020.

 

We had a board meeting on 28 April, some in the meeting, most (like me) on ZOOM.
Then on 19 May and 26 May more lunches at Morel’s Restaurant.
Later we started again our regular lunches at the Beijing Kempinski Hotel.

More to report! This is part 1.

French and Middle East cuisine in Beijing

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Exploring

Trying some French and Middle East cuisine in Beijing. Well, the “French” restaurant is not that French: Chez Soi, see earlier post. I had again the sausages, pretty good, on 6 October.

The promised Belgian Evening on 14 October was a bit disappointing, the French (lady) chef apologized that most items were not available. We had the Mitrailette sandwich, pretty OK, but the Cocotte de Poulet was served nearly cold (not long time enough in the microwave I guess).

They are now changing their so-called Belgian Day to Saturday. Not good for me!

Meza, Middle East

I went to say hello to chef Adel in his newly opened restaurant, east of the American Embassy. Nice interior. the food was good. Planning to return to explore more of the dishes.

I love that cuisine, many of the dishes you find in many countries, Israel, Lebanon, North Africa. The funny thing is I learned about it in São Paulo (Brazil): it was considered as some fast-food, very popular at lunch time.

Japanese, hamburgers and Irish restaurants

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Trying new and established restaurants in Beijing

No, I do not only eat at Morel’s Restaurant! Been trying Japanese, hamburgers and Irish restaurants in Beijing.
After a a long time back to Paddy O’Shea’s, the well-known Irish pub on Dongzhimenwai. See their website: http://paddyosheasbeijing.com/

This time to watch the Tuesday Comedy Live, pretty entertaining. Mostly full. Food is OK, not haute cuisine but lots of good beer.

Japanese in Aikiya

Aikiya Japanese Restaurant (合气屋日餐 in Chinese) is at the back of the former German restaurant on Gongti Dong Lu. Interesting decoration, very Japanese. The snacks at the door are free, must eat there. Not sure about the English name, it is a Google translation.

Food was good and price reasonable. We enjoyed!

New hamburger place

We finally made it to Shake Shack, the new hamburger joint in Taikoo Li in Sanlitun, close to the new Apple shop.

In the first weeks, often long queues, so we waited till things calmed down. Supposed to be a famous chain in USA. The hamburgers were juicy and tasty. Not really cheap. Service at the counters efficient, quick and friendly.

Beijing Rotary in 2019 (part 2)

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

A look back to 2019

See the previous part. Here comes Beijing Rotary in 2019 (part 2).

More to come about our activities in 2020.

Our SR Richard

As mentioned earlier we have a “Special Representative”. See here his previous visit on 5 November 2019.
That was with Jonathan as our club president. We also had Rotaractors joining.

And see the pics of our lunch on 12 November 2019.

UNHCR presentation

During our lunch in Kempinski on 26 November 2019 we had a presentation by UNHCR (United Nations High Commission for Refugees), Ms. Margriet Veenma, Senior Protection Officer (Leiden University, Netherlands). See their recent update:
https://reporting.unhcr.org/sites/default/files/UNHCR%20China%20Fact%20Sheet%20March%202020.pdf
or here: UNHCR China Fact Sheet March 2020

Margriet introduced UNHCR’s global efforts assisting refugees and asylum seekers in China. Based in Beijing she was previously assigned to territories including DR Congo, Egypt, Pakistan and Sudan.

Rtn Viktor brought several banners from his trip in Germany (Berlin and Leipzig), Rtn Martin introduced the club Kauniainen – Grankulla of Finland.

We also had a visitor Rtn James of the club of The Hague Metropolitan (Netherlands).

Finally a cake

I complained that every year the December birthday boys and girls don’t get the birthday cake. This year, yes I had a BIG one, during the lunch on 17 December 2019. No speaker that day.

Thank you!