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.

Our friend Rotarian René has finally done the official opening of Hacker-Pschorr Bräuhaus!
The name Hacker-Pschorr dates back to the marriage of Teresia Hacker and Joseph Pschorr. Under the couple’s leadership, Hacker-Pschorr advanced to become Munich’s leading major brewery in the 18th century.
“As a vibrant, traditional brewery with deep roots in Bavaria, Hacker-Pschorr delivers the highest quality and finest art of brewing according to the Bavarian Purity Law, while embodying Bavarian characteristics of conviviality, earthiness, tradition and craft brewing like no other brand. This is the „Himmel der Bayern“ („Heaven of Bavaria“), and this is what Hacker-Pschorr has stood for since 1417.”
See: http://www.hacker-pschorr-brauhaus.com/

I had already tried out some of the dishes (and the beer, obviously) in December 2014 during the trial run, and gave my feedback to René. See the dates of the pictures. The restaurant will be fully operational after Chinese New Year.
The Sanlitun location is on Xindong Lu across the street from the Bentley Car Showroom. The restaurant is really large and cozy. There is a bakery and meat shop on the street level. And it is in walking distance of the German embassy.
It joins other German restaurants in the area: Drei Kronen 1308 Brauhaus, a bit further south on Gongti Dong Lu, and Taps – German Bar & Grill (Sanlitun Tongli area, same building as Luga’s, close to 3.3). It will all depend on management, price/quality…