Life in the city

Old China Hands LOVE the sauna weather

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Important update: with our experience of the rehearsal of the parade, the restaurant staff was not able to reach the restaurant the next morning. So, the date of 4 September would not work. We decided to do hold the lunch on Saturday 5 September, that day being an official holiday. As from 7 September everybody will be busy…

Yes, so much we had one of the largest turnouts on Friday 7 August! We were 35!
As usual, when the date seems weird or not convenient we have more people than usual.

Again, lively conversations for some two hours.
The next date is again “unusual”: Friday 4 September. Indeed, 3 to 5 September will be a national holiday with a certified blue sky and guaranteed low traffic. The Beijing government will paralyze the city and industry to “celebrate” some war stories and hold a big parade.
We are still checking that that Friday will work before sending out the emails. Stay tuned!
So, what else to do but to rush to our monthly lunch?

Touring Wudaoying Hutong in Beijing

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

On 2 July the weather was so nice – and really hot – and I could not resist jumping on my red bike and going to explore the Wudaoying Hutong near the Lama Temple.
One excuse was I wanted to finally locate the well-known bike shop, NATOOKE, run by the also well-known German girl Ines Brunn (yes, also “an Old China Hand”!). She was the one to launch the now ubiquitous fixed gear bikes in Beijing, she is also an acrobat on wheels as she showed us in the 2014 Rotary Ball.
The bikes are cool but I still prefer a more “work-horse” type allowing me to transport a lot of stuff, in the front and in the back. And with fenders to protect against water and mud when it rains.

There is a lot to explore in the hutongs there. Many shops, coffee shops, restaurants.
Besides the Lama Temple (with the shops selling the tools to pray in the temple!) there is also the Confucian Temple and Imperial College Museum (I still have to visit…).
I really need to explore more all those hutongs. There also some rather mysterious buildings there, not sure what they are but they look like VIP meeting places. I will need Chinese friends to figure that out… Few signs however to figure it out. They can ask the guards at least.

Old China Hands are not giving in to the hot weather!

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

We had our monthly Old China Hands lunch on 3 July, in Morel’s restaurant as usual. I was wondering how many would turn up, with the hot weather and the holidays.

Surprise, we were well over 20! As always, new and old faces. And lively, old-fashioned conversation without mobiles.
Next one: 7 August, right in the middle of Beijing Sauna Season!

Visit to 798 Art Zone, discovering the Ullens Center

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

On Sunday 28 June I had to go to 798 for the opening of the Israel Center. I hadn’t been there since long as it is too far by bike. I arrived well ahead of time to walk a little around the Art Zone that has become a real small city. One needs more than one day to go around and explore the many corners, with galleries, shops, cafés, restaurants and even offices.

So I finally visited the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA), set up by the Belgian couple Ullens in 2007. It is pretty well known around the world by now. The outside is rather “factory” as the Art Zone actually is, but the inside is pretty modern and nice. I also liked the shop.
The sky was grey, the weather like a sauna but I did take a few pictures along the 798 road, like of the coffee shop hidden within a huge tree and the railway museum part (great old locomotive).
I will really need to visit the area more, I probably need first to buy a better bike…

Visit of the King and Queen of Belgium in Beijing

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

I met the then Prince Philippe several times in the early 2000, he also decorated me. Now very pleased to meet him and his lovely wife in Beijing. For me, in the over 30 years I am in Beijing I met 3 kings and queens, King Baudouin (and Queen Fabiola, with whom I had a long talk in 1981), the King Albert II (brother of Baudouin) (and Queen Paola), now King Philippe (and Queen Mathilde).
The reception was in Diaoyutai State Guesthouse on 24 June. We first passed Tiananmen where the Belgian flag was flying along the Chinese one. The King and his big delegation of officials and especially businesspeople are visiting Wuhan, Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen. I must admire people like our King having the patience to greet so many people, all this during a grueling schedule. I wonder how they do this.

There were some 680 guests with tight security, little or no food but lots of Belgian beer.
In the delegation was also Foreign Minister Didier Reynders (I also met him years ago). And of course our Ambassador Michel Malherbe who is doing a great job with a permanent smile, along with his team that is working with little sleep…
I did not try to squeeze through the crowd to see the King for some seconds, I don’t like that so much. Anyway, I had the pleasure years ago to be with him many times. I preferred to take some pictures instead, meet old friends (Jan Hu, Bernard Dewit, Gwenn Sonck, …) and have a good beer. And of course many of the Belgian community in Beijing.
Also good to see again Hans-Dietmar Schweisgut, the Ambassador of the European Union to China and former Ambassador of Austria in Beijing – we met many times in the past. He was the only ambassador invited.