Life in the city

Legend Beer has great food, and girls

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

A good meeting spot

As Legend Beer has great food, and impressive girls, and is next door to my home, reasons enough to have a dinner with friends.
Good to meet an old friend from Belgium, Professor Alphons (“Fons”), who visits China regularly and is also a great photographer (and travels a lot).

Some of the food

See here some of the great dishes: roasted lamb, avocado with shrimps, crispy pork knuckle, German sausages, German potato salad. And more.
As a friendly help to the manager Adam I also function At times as the “professional photographer” (haha) to make pictures of the customers. And yes, beautiful girls ( and handsome boys), see also earlier posts.

Old China Hands and The Beijinger

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

The first Friday as usual

As usual, on the first Friday of the month our lunch at Morel’s Restaurant. This time 2 December and it was “Old China Hands and The Beijinger”, as we had the visit of their journalist (Scott) and photographer.
The Beijinger is an authority on what is going on in Beijing, see:
http://www.thebeijinger.com/

We had a nice group of just over 30 people, with a large variety of nationalities.

Now waiting for…

Waiting for the interview that should come out in January. See the great pics I got back from The Beijinger.
And waiting for the next lunch, Friday 6 January 2017.
Our informal get together is for foreign passport holders with at least ten years of China experience.

Child safety seats in China

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Save Kids Lives Project (SKL).

As reported earlier on Child safety seats, see: https://www.beijing1980.com/2016/11/21/district-sr-frank-yih-rotary-beijing/
As few people know. the leading cause of death in China for children under 14 are traffic accidents, another major cause being drowning.
Ever seen kids sitting in the front seat, or back seat, without protection? Adults in the back seat without a safety belt? Those are major causes of death. Chinese totally ignore the terrible risks. In European countries those attitudes are punishable by law. In case of any accidents the kids simply fly through the front window, normally with instant death.
Our Rotarian James, through his company Ming Jian has been lobbying the authorities on this, with success, at least in Shanghai.
See also (in Chinese):
http://www.mingjian.cn/savekidslives/events

Child safety seats to be made mandatory

See article in Shanghai Daily:
Child safety seats to be made mandatory
By Yang Jian – 10 November 2016
http://www.shanghaidaily.com/metro/society/Child-safety-seats-to-be-made-mandatory/shdaily.shtml

Child safety seats will become mandatory for private cars carrying children under the age of 4, under the city’s draft road and traffic management law released by the Shanghai legislature yesterday.
Using a mobile phone while driving would also be banned, bringing the city into line with many jurisdictions overseas.
The two new clauses would join a raft of offenses that include speeding, incorrect lane changing, not wearing a seatbelt and overloading.
Violators will be fined up to 200 yuan (US$30) and be hit with demerit points.
Drivers who rack up 10 offenses or more will face tougher punishment, under the draft bill’s provisions.

Racist tirade against Chinese

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Bad German guy

Even China Daily took up the story that circulated wildly on the Chinese Internet, about the Racist tirade against Chinese by a German guy. He did wrong but did anybody care to look for the reasons of his outburst? Maybe he was daily being faced with (unpleasant) parking problems? Was there a special reason he snapped? Who knows. And yes, I know some foreigners who really act as axxholes here and shame us. But that is not the point.

My view

Sorry but I have my personal view on all this, shared by several old timers in Beijing.

Street assaults and robberies are now more common, but also anti-foreign attitudes. Worse, if a foreigner is assaulted and beaten in a robbery, he is likely to be accused of “assault”. So, I guess you give all your money and stuff, let yourself be beaten up, to avoid even worse. For those naïve, I have some (bloody) pictures of such assaults (that I did not want to post here…). As for the “racist” stuff, see below.

The story

“Senior Daimler executive removed from post after racist tirade against Chinese people in Beijing parking row”
German expat Rainer Gaertner also allegedly pulled out pepper spray to disperse onlookers during quarrel over parking space
Dated 22 November 2016
Link: http://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2048191/german-executive-sacked-over-racist-tirade-china

My comment as posted on SCMP:

I have a different take on this story. Yes, the guy used improper language and attitude. Agreed. On the other hand we see in Beijing mounting anti-foreigner sentiment (without any immediate reason), racist insults and even physical aggression. If a foreigner defends himself physically he faces prison. Racist and xenophobic attacks seem to be “OK”. Will those (Chinese) attackers face any punishment? Like losing their job? It is a one-way “justice”. China has changed for the worst, in the past Chinese were overall very polite. Now some have become arrogant and blame foreigners for whatever, ranting and assaulting them. You won’t read this in the media because this is CENSORED. So, we have no rights? Contrary to what wumaos say, as foreigners we have no “favorable treatment”, on the contrary right now. Not to be surprised foreigners are leaving, so China is one of the countries with the lowest amount of foreigners IN THE WORLD. I have many local friends but they are the first to tell me “Be careful. Many bad people. Don’t try to argue”.

 

Shui Wawa promotion at Legend Beer

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Shui Wawa?

On 19 November, a Shui Wawa promotion at Legend Beer.
I was asked to help to describe the product and take some pictures.
SHUI WAWA, or, WATER BABY 4D, is a probiotic product putting a bio film on the teeth. It is similar to mouth wash, looks like foam toothpaste. It is a new generation of products to protect your teeth. Spray it in the mouth, wash the teeth with it then spit it out. It is a new way to use probiotics.
It was a fun evening, as usual having a lot of my favored draft “Worker Stadium West IPA”, a pretty bitter IPA I prefer above others of their good beers. See the picture with the brew master.

Shui Wawa promotion at Legend Beer

Anyway, a good excuse to enjoy the food, their sausages, baby ribs and crispy pork knuckle are all very well done. And all in the company of many nice people, friends and gorgeous-looking girls, and of course many Chinese. People from all over the world, USA. UK, Australia, Ukraine, Venezuela and Kazakhstan, among others. And many Chinese who were eager to take pictures with the photographer.
See also some pictures of earlier visits. One customer had ordered the big lamb leg,