On 23 March, I once again had the pleasure to share a table at Morel’s Restaurant with Arie Haan, the famous Dutch trainer who is back living in Beijing and is the trainer of the Tianjin team and Renaat and Susan who run the Belgian restaurant.

We share a couple of interests: Morel’s, a laugh, and a good wine.
I called our friend Su Dong (and his wife) who is a well-know sports host on TV and is specialized in football, to join our chat.
As it happened I had just talked to a sports delegation from Groningen about the present situation of football in China.
Arie just published a book in Dutch about his experience here in China:
“NEE BESTAAT NIET, Werken met Chinezen, op het voetbalveld, op de werkvloer en in the board room”. Edicola Publishing 2015.

I was told again it would be a “difficult date”. And yes, we had a couple of no-shows, some last minute cancellations (always grateful to be informed) but even so, we were 30.

What is the reason people seem to love it? Well, I think it is “quality control” but also going back to plain an simple socializing.
First of all I make sure the rules are observed: no speeches, no open commercial stunts, ten years of China experience, good food served on time and making sure everybody is taken care of. There is also the flexibility to arrive a bit late and leave more early. In this time of always-on-mobile it is also relaxing to simply sit down with others and actually TALK. Not just frantically going around exchanging business cards.
So, happy also to welcome again our Belgian ambassador, some well-known media people and other seasoned China Hands.
Our next one: Friday 3 April, same time, same place, always a slightly different mix.

Thanks to our friend Harvey to let me join “Spring Festival Celebration and International Friendship Ambassador Award Ceremony”, on Sunday 8 February in the Beijing International Hotel Convention Center. We had a great table and we chatted a lot.

The hotel is pretty big with many meeting rooms, some shops, artifacts and art displays, large atriums in several unexpected corners. Next to the hotel is the Convention Center, often used by the Beijing government. Looks overall pretty quiet.
The event was a bit too “Chinese” if I may say so, in a not-that-good way.
It started at 5:30 pm and we had first to go through the performances, speeches and award ceremony till we got food around 8:00 pm. Everybody was hungry. No beer, no wine. We suspect it was because there were many diplomats from Muslim countries. So far so good for mutual respect: why can’t we have a beer at least? Certainly not a budget problem as beer costs less than the soft drinks we were served. Some were not too convinced about the quality of the food but I found it reasonable.
There were several empty tables, a bit everywhere, that did not look good. The waiters would still pile up dishes while nobody was sitting there. Our table, not lacking initiative, went to collect those to add more on our table.
The event management and design team has a lot to improve. The (impressive) acrobat lady from Taiyuan was dressed in red with a red background: we could hardly see her. Music was playing loudly when it shouldn’t. And so on. I have seen other Chinese events amazingly well organized.
The awards all went to …, oh well I don’t know how to say that. But zero awards to EU, North America, Australia and alike. Looks like we are not on the Friendship list… On the other hand, I did not see anybody from Western embassies. Anyway I was happy to meet again the ambassadors of Benin, Senegal and Vietnam.
The “awards” ribbons had their English upside down… Another point was the “present” we got: a massive and heavy book. All calligraphy, not exactly something most foreigners are happy to carry … and keep…

We had our monthly Old China Hands lunch on Friday 6 February, at our usual Morel’s Restaurant. Attendance is always a bit unpredictable as most people are busy and many often travel. This time I had a chance to check our maximum capacity: 36. We might squeeze in 4 more to reach 40 but that would be the maximum if we keep it to that part of the restaurant only. We ended up wit 37 people. So, people, confirm your attendance or…

Again everybody seemed pretty happy to mingle, chat and obviously enjoy the set lunch (a real bargain for just RMB 98!).
Next lunch is Friday 6 March. I will be back just in time from Melbourne and I hope to send the mails from there. Who wants to join, send me a mail.
Our list is growing while I am about to clean up some non-active members.