Life in the city

District SR Frank Yih at Rotary Beijing

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Our special guest(s)

On 15 November District SR Frank Yih (Special Representative) joined the Beijing Rotary lunch at the Kempinski Hotel, along with other delegates from Shanghai.
SR Frank started his presentation with a video of RIP John Germ’s speech about this year’s theme – Rotary Serving Humanity. Frank then explained the Presidential Citation and the status of our clubs. There are 15 clubs and 5 provisional clubs in Mainland China as of today; there are 7 Rotaract clubs and 11 Interact clubs, see the slides. Frank also presented the district structure, finance and plans. The current District Service Projects are Gift of Life (GOL) and Save Kids Lives (SKL). SR Frank also invited fellow Rotarians to join him in the RI Convention Atlanta on June 10-14, 2017.

Our Gift of Life Program

One of our key project, now gradually the task is taken over by other organizations.
Congenital Heart Defects in China:
The incidence rate of CHD is about 0.7% to 1.1% based on the national data, and in the higher elevation regions the rate is increased to 1.37% to 2.5%.
More than 150,000 born with CHD per year.
About 1/3 died in one month due to the serious CHD or complex malformation
Another 1/3 died in very young age due to the exacerbation or delay of the surgery.
What we have achieved:
Over 20 million RMB raised by Rotary Club of Shanghai, Beijing & Chengdu;
More than 1,000 children from poor family operated.

Visiting Rtn James presented Save Kids Lives Project (SKL).

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.
SKL promotes awareness of the danger, with the government and all concerned.

PP Piper explains DDF

PP Piper gave a presentation on the Fund Drive 2016: District Designated Fund (DDF) and the global Impact of Rotary Work.
The mission of The Rotary Foundation is to enable Rotary members to advance world understanding, goodwill, and peace through the improvement of health, the support of education, and the alleviation of poverty. The Foundation is a not-for-profit corporation supported solely by voluntary contributions from Rotary members and friends of the Foundation who share its vision of a better world. This support is essential to make possible projects, funded with Foundation grants, that bring sustainable improvement to communities in need.

Thanks  District SR Frank Yih for the visit and the presentations!

Old China Hands lunch 4 November

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Old China Hands at Morel’s Restaurant

Great to have our twenty Old China Hands at our lunch of Friday 4 November. The usual RSVP with people super busy, travelling or – with an autumn cold.

The next Old China Hands Lunch

Next one is Friday 2 December. I expect also people to be super busy again. The last one for 2016. In 2017, the first one to be on Friday 6 January. Mark your calendars!

Beijing 2016 British Ball

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Many balls in Beijing

The 2016 British Ball is one of the many in Beijing, each month there are several to choose from. Most are pretty expensive (over 1000 RMB per ticket) and formal.
As we had never been to a British Ball, we were happy to join the Rotary table on 22 October in the Kerry Hotel Grand Ballroom.
Rotarians were: President Daniel R., Joergen, Klaus, Eli, Helen, Russell.
Also happy to see our Belgian friend Ruben playing the violin!

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A fully packed ballroom

While some balls have a hard time selling their tickets, the Beijing 2016 British Ball was sold out (750 seats I was told). Thanks to Rotarian Russell Brown for arranging our table. He was also the MC of the evening.
For me also great to meet again the UK Ambassador H.E. Barbara Woodward: we closely worked together on the preparation of the 2008 Olympics when she was posted here previously.
Food and drinks were great. Of course we did not win any prize, as usual, but it was a fun evening with many friends!

Gastronomic wine dinner in Morel’s

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Why a wine dinner?

Beijing is a city full of surprises, I have been organizing a few “gastronomic wine dinners” as I happen to have a very unusual collection of old Spanish and French wines. I mean, REAL old.
We invite normally two couples, close friends, to experiment the old wines while Renaat, the chef of Morel’s restaurant, serves some of his exceptional dishes.
I have been lucky till now: I always prepare several bottles as it is likely some have turned into vinegar but that has not happened yet.

Dinner on 19 October

This time we had a “Belgium-Greece Friendship Dinner”. Our Greek diplomat is an “old friend”: we worked together on the preparation of the 2008 Olympics and we went both to Athens for a large China seminar.
See the list of wines for the gastronomic wine dinner
The Spanish red I had listed as 1950 turned out to be 1930, the date was basically gone but the picture showed it was a 3 instead of a 5. That wine was pretty good but with a lot of sediment. Though called a “Moscatel Tiebas” it was red and not sweet.
The Château Lafite-Rothschild 1949 was finally not that great anymore. The Château Gruaud Larose 1989 (Saint Julien) and the Señorio de Arganza 1964 were both great.
The surprise (not planned!) was that one of the wine years was the birth year of one at the table…

Year of the horse

We were asked our opinion about some calligraphies intended for the office of the well-known Chinese CEO. See for yourself.

The dinner menu

For the Gastronomic wine dinner a copious menu. Appetizer: small balls made with Belgian Beef Stew. Starter: Belgian endive with foie gras; cream soup of small mussels; main dish: Beef Wellington (Beef Wellington is a preparation of filet steak coated with pâté and Duxelles, which is then wrapped in puff pastry and baked – Wikipedia). Desert: berries cake. Followed by digestive (special reserve of Renaat).

Beijing car accidents and biking

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Chinese drivers

Chinese drivers are generally just bad. Most don’t know how to drive (ever seen one doing a u-turn as it should?), don’t respect anything (laws, other people). They are normally ALWAYS on the phone, even when turning into another direction. Basically all Chinese think they are actually alone on the road and if anybody comes in their way, well, they have priority.

Beijing car accidents: a bit spectacular!

Not to be surprised accidents are pretty frequent but somehow cleaned up pretty quickly.
More difficult to understand how cars can be turned upside down as shown in the picures. OK, on a highway that could make sense, but in the middle of the city like Xindong Lu (near Heaven Supermarket) and Dongzhimenwai (near the EU Delegation)?

Biking in Beijing: dangerous at times but convenient

Being on a bike at least one gets somewhere without all the traffic jams but many cyclists end up hurt or more as nobody respects any traffic rules: cars, mopeds, pedestrians.

I have been pretty lucky so far. One evening I was violently hit on my left side by a deliveryman on his electric bike. His front wheel hit my left boot, absorbing the full shock. I managed to still stand while both are bikes were on the ground. The guy was pretty scared I would call police. We finally found a piece of wired to put the boot together and so I went to a networking event. Oh well, I actually hated those boots… So no big deal.
And yes, at least I try to be a little on the safe side: with my helmet (always) and gloves, in case of hitting something or falling down.