On 25 November I attended, along with two of our Rotaractors, a concert at the National Library Concert Hall. The stars were of course Peter and his lovely wife. But also impressive were some of his young protégés, some as young as 12 years old.

Peter is a real maestro at the piano but his wife Stella is as impressive – what a voice! She was also the host for the event.
After the concert Peter signed his CD for the fans and of course was ready to have his pictures taken…
Peter is off to Belgium and other countries for another round of concerts. Looking forward to see him again in Beijing after Chinese New Year!
The concert hall is well done, acoustics great. But every subway that passes underneath brings a disturbing rumble. And as usual the Chinese public was always too busy talking, playing with their mobiles and answering calls of their noisy mobiles. Try that in Europe. Education …

In and Out (一坐一忘) – Chinese, Yunnan cuisine

Tun San Li Yongli International Plaza, 21 Gongti Beilu, go around the building on the outside, the restaurant is on the north-east side.
Spacious and nice restaurant, summer time outside seating available.
Had dinner there with Sun on 27 September.

I like Yunnan food and this restaurant is pretty good. I can recommend.

On Friday 13 November the Belgian Embassy celebrated King’s Day, which falls on 15 November. For most it is the “de facto” National Day as in summertime most people are away. This year, hundreds of people attended. Ambassador Malherbe hosted a winter reception at his residence and in the surrounding garden. Catering was done by TRB, serving small appetizers (blood sausage, beef stew and other), fish soup, waffles, Belgian fries and more. And thanks to the Embassy, a wide variety of great Belgian beers (some more bottles for my collection!).

TRB missed the right word for “Frietkot”. Not Fritkot. But the fries were OK!

Snow is rather rare in dry Beijing but this Sunday 22 November I woke up to a white Julong Garden

Now later I have to jump on my bike…

I finally found the restaurant, close to the Marriot North East Hotel in a rather dark alley. One has to know… Off Xiaoyun Lu. Pretty big, rather empty when I was there with a Filipino band playing nearly for me alone. Good choice of German beers.

Did not try the food yet, they have the typical variety of German dishes. Said to be run by a Chinese coming back from Germany. Prices seem reasonable but I wonder about the quality of the food: some of the dishes need to be done “freshly” and cannot be reheated, with so few clients that might be a question mark.