These days on Wechat several postings on reported incidents where foreigners are being attacked in Beijing by a group of Chinese men and beaten up. Several locations are mentioned. Attacks seem to occur if the foreigner is accompanied “by Chinese or Mongolian girl”.
Those “rumors” are not new and we have had a case of an American intern being beaten up on the street, for no reason, years ago. He left China the next day.
I would recommend, if those things happen, to file a police report and insist they check the CCTV cameras on the street. They are installed a bit everywhere.
It would be interesting to know in how far this is happening. And the police should seriously look into this, to check in how far those incidents happen, and why.

On 14 November the Belgian Embassy in Beijing organized a nice reception in the Conrad Hotel for over 300 guests. H.E. Michel Malherbe was a good host as usual.
See some few pics of the event, also with some of the Belgian beer served along with a buffet of “Belgian cuisine” (oh well the cooks tried their best but Renaat Morel is stile “the one”!)

Portal Belgium.be:
Belgium is an ancient and yet still young nation. Belgians were first mentioned about 2,000 years ago (by Julius Caesar in his book on the Gallic Wars). Nevertheless, Belgium was for centuries part of a larger state structure.
The independent State of Belgium was born on October 4, 1830.
National Day is celebrated on July 21. Its commemorates the day on which Leopold I took the constitutional oath as the first King of Belgium, on July 21st 1831.
As July is a rather quiet month, especially in Beijing, the unofficial day for “National Day” is 15 November. We mostly call it “King’s Day” however the correct term is King’s Feast.
The Feast Day of the German-speaking Community is also the Day of the King.

King’s Feast (Wikipedia)
The King’s Feast (Dutch: Koningsfeest, French: Fête du Roi, German: Festtag des Königs) has been celebrated in Belgium on November 15 since 1866. Since 2001, the Belgian Federal Parliament holds a ceremony in honor of the King, in the presence of members of the Belgian Royal Family and other dignitaries. Federal ministries are closed on this day. Traditionally, a Te Deum is sung as well as a private observance being held.
November 15 is the name day of Leopold (the feast of Saint Leopold in the German liturgical calendar) and Albert (the feast of Saint Albert the Great in the General Roman Calendar). In 1951, King Baudouin decided to honor November 15, as did his brother King Albert II. During the regency of Prince Charles, the designations Day of the Dynasty or Feast of the Dynasty were used, and these terms are still often erroneously used. However, it is not the correct name, as was confirmed in a circular letter in 1953.

On 7 November, the first Friday of the month, we had our monthly Old China Hands lunch in Morel’s. We were a bit worried if people could make it or not with all the hoopla and annoyances because of APEC.

Yes some people left Beijing for more welcoming locations such as Thailand but we ended up with even more people than before. Again new faces among the usual crowd.
Next round will be Friday 5 December.
Open for expats with at least ten years of China experience.

On 1 November we had the unique opportunity to listen to Peter giving a private concert at his Beijing home. We are from the same city in Belgium… and the same school…

See here about him:
Peter Ritzen was born in the historic Flemish city of Ghent, in Belgium. He studied piano and chamber music at the Royal Conservatory there, continuing his studies at the Mozarteum in Salzburg (1981-83) with the renowned Russian pianist Tatiana Nikolayeva. He graduated with the Diplome Supérieure d’Exécution for piano from the Alfred Cortot Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris in 1984. As a concert pianist, Ritzen has appeared throughout Europe, Asia and the United States, winning particular acclaim as an interpreter of Franz Liszt and Theodor Leschetizky, with the recording for Naxos of works by the latter. His deep immersion in Chinese culture has given Ritzen, a composer of large-scale works, a whole repertoire of compositions inspired by China and Chinese traditions. Peter Ritzen possesses an unparalleled gift for free improvisation on the piano, drawing strongly and unmistakably on the great traditions of the nineteenth century. He is a recording artist for Naxos.
More:
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Ritzen
His website: http://www.peterritzen.com/home/

Great performance, good food and many friends I met there, along with new ones. Thanks to his gracious wife (and soprano) Stella for being such a wonderful host.

The first four China International Chongyang Festivals were successfully organized and held in 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012; due to budget restrictions and the call for saving money, 2013 was not held. I am in the Organizing Committee since the first one.
This year it was hosted as usual by the Managing Committee of China Aging International Development Foundation, where I also have a position. This event was held in the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, Beijing on Oct. 12, 2014. The previous ones were all in the Great Hall of the People. Diaoyutai is certainly an improvement: better service, better food, less hassle to enter and certainly less austere.
Many ambassadors (Senegal, Vietnam, Myanmar, Thailand, …), embassy delegates, foreign organizations and others attended. I invited several foreign “senior” citizens.
Ms. Peng Pei Yun was the highest invited guest from the government; she is Vice Chairperson of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, the Chairwoman of the All-China Women’s Federation, and President of the Red Cross Society of China.

I gave my speech in Chinese and English, as representative of the foreign seniors.
As always the performances by the senior citizens’ Art Troup were impressive and charmed the audience. Some of the dancers (see the pic with Ms. Peng) were over 90 years old.
All my guests were pretty happy with the evening.
(And I was relieved nothing went wrong and my Chinese was declared ”ok”!)