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”!)

In the middle of the holidays but we had still 19 participants, who took their time for a long lunch and chat. At Morel’s Restaurant as usual, with the direct supervision of Chef Renaat.
Some of the participants got lost however, looks like they went to another Morel’s. Sorry guys, no palm trees here.

Next lunch will be 7 November.
See you!

It was the start of the intense month of September, so, many Old China Hands were busy with meetings but we were far over twenty anyway, with some special guests such as the Belgian and Swedish ambassadors, as well as a former Polish ambassador who beats us all as “Old China Hand”: he came here like in 1955. Remarkable!

Next round: 3 October, right in the middle of the holidays, for those who prefer a quiet Beijing. No meetings or traffic jams will be accepted as an excuse!