Life in the city

Gongti strip to disappear

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

The verdict

I knew this was coming through my contacts: the gongti strip to disappear, along with all bars, discos, restaurants and shops in the Worker’s Stadium area. I called it the “gongti strip” as we have the Las Vegas Strip. At night the street becomes total chaos with cars blocking each other, girls in mini miniskirts, a procession of the most expensive cars. Traffic police permanently on holiday.
It is planned all will disappear by the end of the year, including Legend Beer.
See:
https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/vxjW_OXK7Fwmx_NHFOnOdg

Construction crews already set up their quarters and they have started work.

Memories

So many famous locations of the Beijing nightlife:
VICS, MIX, Tubestation, Club Sirteen, Bellagio, Heaven Supermarket, Lantern, Elements, KTVs, name it.
See some here as they are still in place, also a few of the many venues inside the stadium area.

Some historical facts of the area:
Gongti Turns 60: A Look Back at the Stadium’s Moments in History
theBeijinger 4 August 2020
https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/ddiOU98_p4BCzig_cdvk7Q

However there is a mistake in the overview. The first concert was not at all in 1999. One of the first I actually attended myself in 1985, the performance by Wham! (George Michael), the first Western band to perform in China as the country began to open up after the Cultural Revolution, an hour-long concert for 15.000 people.
See:
https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/2057286/george-michael-china-how-singer-made-it-over

See an overview of the articles: 200803 endofera

Sterile city

It is supposed to be to be a major renovation of the Worker’s Stadium and the surrounding area, and as far as I understand also to build a new subway station. I am afraid it will be a sterile and funless new gongti.

The former “Gongti Yibai”, the formerly biggest indoor bowling area in the world (100 lanes) has been transformed over the years in a huge complex of discos, KTV and more.
With all the government much criticized clampdown on “illegal structures”, leading to massive destruction of shops, restaurants and bars, the government never dared to touch the KTV and other who simply took over the huge underground parking, to build their venues. License? You bet. I guess some got very well rewarded for ignoring this “illegal construction”. I dare anyone to show me the legal go-ahead!

Many nice bars and cafes have been closed in the hutongs and in Sanlitun. It seems some are coming back as new discos, even now they are filled to capacity with a massive dancing crowd. And that during “COVID time”. Social distancing? Hahahaha. Even Club Sirteen on the Gongti Strip is still full blast in the night. Well, for the time being. (click to view the video clip)

200808 sirteen

Sometimes one cannot understand how the Beijing government works.

Rotarians meet in Beijing

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Informal meetings

After months of restrictions due to the virus, Rotarians meet in Beijing again for informal meetings and simple social events.
Many of our members are locked out of China; especially our Rotaractors have a tough time as many are students or professors/teachers, unable to return.
We did restart with some modest lunches and dinners just to meet each other.

Hilton “BBQ”

Initially on 28 July we had planned an outdoor BBQ in the Hilton (3rd East Ring Road) but due to possible rain the hotel gave us the restaurant on the 2nd floor for our private dinner.
It was also the handover from the 2019-2020 team to the 2020-2021 team.

I managed to bring in some more young people who were able to mingle with the Rotarians.
Good service of the Hilton staff left everybody happy!
We had so many nationalities present, too many to mention…

A farewell dinner

Sadly in Beijing people come and go. One of our past presidents of the Rotary Club of Beijing is leaving us, as he got a new assignment in Europe.
One of our “core members” organized a small dinner at her home, to say farewell to our members leaving us. Our host did a wonderful job, so much delicious food, drinks and we even had a mini KTV session, revealing some hidden talents among our members.
I took part with a Rotaractor to help out for the service, we dressed in our Rotaract uniform!

We all hope we can slowly get back to normal to do our “service to the community”! Most of our projects are for children in need.

Old China Hands Lunch 3 July

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Back again

Another Old China Hands Lunch 3 July after the virus outbreak. Attendance was up with a total of 22.
Members blocked abroad and unable to return “home” are still close to 30.
Some are to give up on China for good, with their business, family life and social life wrecked. Beijing authorities don’t care and there is no end in sight for the misery, while Shanghai seems to to be looking for solutions.

Next lunch

Planned for Friday 7 August. Hopefully no “unexpected problems”.

Old China Hands Lunch is back

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

A modest restart

Old China Hands Lunch is back after a 3 months “pause”. As 1 May was the first Friday of the month we decided to do it on Friday 8 May, giving us also more time to evaluate the “situation”.
I asked our members for an update on their situation and sadly many of our regulars are stuck outside of China as they are not allowed to return to China. They are in UK, USA, Australia, Thailand, Germany, name it. It does not look good when they could return, I think not before October in the best case.
That is obviously dramatic as many have office and home here with all their belongings. Their business is, the least to say, seriously affected.
Some say they will leave China for good. I can’t blame them. China and in particular Beijing is turning against foreigners and racism and xenophobia pop up regularly.
China for sure knows how to turn friends into enemies. And they couldn’t care less.

Our lunch

We were exactly 16 and I insisted on all observing the rules of social distancing, 4 per table, temperature check etc.
Some were still too scared to “mingle”, some simply freaked out. Oh well.

Anyway who came was pretty happy and Morel’s Restaurant served us well.
I am planning the next lunch for Friday 5 June.

 

My COVID-19 Newsletter

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Looking back and evaluating

I started my COVID-19 Newsletter about two months ago, first article was “Virusland is back“, dated 30 January 2020.
Since then I have been posting nearly every day.
Preparing the newsletter has demanded lots of work, and was time-consuming.

My sources were international TV (I watch a lot every day), SCMP, China Daily, NYT, KNACK/TRENDS, De Standaard, Het Laatste Nieuws, Caixin, and many other such as daily newsletters from various sources such as AXION and Sinocism.
I did not intend to be a “news channel” covering everything. The idea was to focus on what has been affecting us in China, how we were dealing with quarantine and lockdown, and the impact of the virus worldwide.
I also tried to double-check sources and give a balanced view while avoiding some sensitive topics that might affect my residence status in Beijing.

I closely monitored the views I get on my different media platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook and others. I also closely followed the hits on this website, that also reveal how people reach my website. Many people on media such as LinkedIn don’t bother to read the article but start commenting. Oh well!
Overall I feel disappointed by the numbers. I don’t show them here but you can comment on how many hits would be nice in your opinion. (Nobody will give feedback anyway!)
One indication: the very few (valid) comments I receive.
It is also clear for me that the people close to me (and the ones I value) hardly ever visit this website.
Yes, quite frustrating.

Websites: a bygone era?

I feel that overall, people have become very superficial and have a very short attention span. Digging a bit deeper in issues is pretty rare. People seems to love very short news clips and rather love fake or sensational news. But you find a lot of “strong opinions”, based on hot air.

It is also very disturbing to see how world leaders such as Trump, Boris Johnson, Jair Bolsonaro and some others drag their countries deeper and deeper into the abyss. Worst, they have followers who remain blind for facts and with whom it is a waste of time to argue. For them, the earth is flat. It shows how our Western democracies are imploding.

Foreign governments and embassies

You can wonder, especially recently, what embassies and representatives of foreign governments bring to the community.
Many embassies seem oblivious to their nationals in the country, hardly ever send out notices except to refer to the websites of their home ministry. How many keep their nationals informed and show interest in solving their problems?
Many embassy staff have no access to external websites. You can wonder how they can stay well-informed. You also wonder what they are actually doing. Have a problem? Please register your case online. Anyway most of the worries of their nationals “are not their responsibility and not in their scope of work”.

All of course depends on the big boss – the ambassador. In my 40 years here I have seen very different attitudes. Creativity, flexibility and initiative are often absent. Of course there are always exceptions. More than often, their work is made more difficult by the instructions and limitations they receive from their foreign ministry. In the past I did receive invaluable assistance from my Belgian embassy (and others). I accept their job has become more difficult by the short-sighted governments, and budget cuts.

Why am I doing this?

A good question that I often asked myself. Those who read my newsletter can agree I have no commercial interests to promote. As for my consulting company, we do not look for clients and we are very choosy.

One aspect I can mention is the promotion of my two books. Here again I see my closest contacts being of little help, if any, to help promote my books, or buying them (kidding, right!). The e-books are actually pretty cheap.
As a reminder, here they are:
“LAUGH AND GET WISER! Jokes and witty wisdom for adults”
The Kindle version: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07H291Z61
and
“Toxic Capitalism – The orgy of consumerism and waste: Are we the last generation on earth?”
E-book: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0792X896M/

The impact of my newsletter in this respect has been close to zero. Very disappointing. This is how you know who your friends are, while I am (or better, was) always too ready to help others.

Trying to help EU countries

Through one of my positions with the Chinese government I was asked to help donate 1,000 test kits to some European countries. The test kits are of a very advanced, we can say, revolutionary design. They offer a COVID-19 test in 5 minutes without using a laboratory. Done on the spot. The kits have all certificates including CE (from The Netherlands) and I have the detailed documentation.

The idea was to donate (officially) to the embassy who would then decide with their government to use it in hospitals, research centers or any health organization interested to test the technology.
Oh well, red tape, inaction, zero response. And oh! Gosh, politics with the Chinese government! Can we do this? (BUT! Welcome Jack Ma! He brings business!)
I have now canceled the offer. Time was the essence but as it stands EU governments have been turtle-like to react. Learn from China!
Anybody interested, contact me. I do not have any business interest in this. I thought I could help…

Too bad, not a surprise that EU countries are hopelessly behind in tackling the outbreak, don’t have masks while they were warned two months in advance. Then they find some millions of masks rotten in a military warehouse.
If one tries to mail masks to family in Europe, good luck. Red tape (WE NEED CE!!!!!) and total lack of cooperation from customs (not to mention embassies) make it virtually impossible.
Remember when Chinese bought ALL masks around the world and shipped them to China? Chinese customs had special procedures to let them in.
Poor EU.

In short, bye. No more COVID-19 stuff

And don’t bother to ask me how are things over here in Beijing. Ask your embassy.
We will watch from Beijing how you all cope (?) to put in place logistics, equipment, health care workers, fail to use masks when needed (= as we do over here for a good reason), implement lockdown, …

Yeah interesting to look how crazy/idiotic people are. Keep hoarding! Buy toilet paper (they shit a lot!!!). And if you ever come to Beijing, your zero star hotel welcomes you in Xiaotangshan (now refurbished after its operation for SARS). And behave in the lift (elevator for others).
Yep, my last little humor (much more in earlier posts).
Meanwhile I will enjoy more great Belgian cuisine in Morel’s Restaurant.