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!

On Friday 1 August, another pleasant lunch with around 20 of the hard-core Old China Hands who are sticking it out in Beijing during the oppressing months of July and August. I was just back in time from my Xinjiang trip (more on that later).

This time Renaat and Susan were back to make sure we were served in an absolute record time. Sigh, our Chinese friends left on their own are still so behind in organizing things, they simply can’t think ahead. Must be the step-by-step syndrome.
Next lunch at Morel’s: Friday 5 September.

In Beijing, a lot is possible and going on. You simply have to know. You want to eat Kosher? Uzbekistan? South-African? Belgian? No problem. Anything.
For the nightlife, a LOT goes on, some of it being for the well-informed insiders (and unprintable here).
I have the privilege to live on the “Gongti Strip”, aka as Gongti Xi Lu (Worker’s Stadium West Road). Quiet till 10 pm till all the Ferrari, Lamborghini etc. arrive, the girls with mini-miniskirts, boys smoking and being extra noisy, all on their mobiles and nobody giving a damn about where to walk, park, whatever. Often pretty chaotic as a result. The street, as well as the north door of the Stadium, are full with discos, bars, restaurants. KTV. Even Spas.

The map of the Strip is pretty well done, though venues come and go.
One old-timer is Destination. Over the years it has expanded tremendously to now occupy the whole two floors of the corner building. It is the largest gay bar in town, 99% are local Chinese. Girls are few but welcome. And the place is simply packed, packed, especially the “dance floor” where dancing is not the idea; topless is in, and go-go dancers give some shows. There several separate areas and bars over the two floors, more quiet than the dance floor.
The place is friendly, of course one has to behave as, well, as a bit gay. Or? In the toilets, Lei Feng welcomes you. I said Hi.
Funny to hear that still some Chinese say that “gays are a Western thing, Chinese do not know this”. Yeah, right. Even the emperors had some fun with it. In the past I also was able to visit the lesbian mega-evenings, but the bar moved away from Gongti (and so did the manager who allowed me in!).
In the run-up to the Olympics I had strongly suggested to the authorities NOT to close Destination for whatever lousy reason, to show Beijing’s openness. It did stay open the whole time.