On Monday 23 September Rotaract held its quiz in “The Local” (formerly called Brussels Restaurant).
We were all a bit nervous – how many people will turn up – but it was better than we could dream: full house, we had to scramble to get enough chairs.  In total 11 teams with far over 50 people. I was looking with amusement how both serious and enthusiastic all were to solve the riddles provide by our quiz master Anthony Tao (who did a great job).
Our Rotaract President Joe being out of town, Past President Ian was the MC, along with Rotarian Helen Boyle of MCF, and myself.
All proceeds were for MCF (Migrant Children Foundation http://www.mcfchina.org).

Prizes: wine donated by Gilbert  and Cheers Wines, plus Gilbert’s e-book.
Proceeds came from the 50 RMB per team fee, the raffle (all tickets sold!) and the contribution from The Local: for every Vedett beer sold, 10 RMB donated. Estimate: about 2000 RMB raised. But most important was the fun aspect of the event!
Congrats to Rotaract and pity not more Rotarians turned up.

See here the announcement of the upcoming Bazaar!

It is our pleasure to invite you to participate in the Rotary Club of Beijing’s annual charity Bazaar, which is our key event to raise fund to support our charity work. This year we are again offering a fun day of pre Christmas shopping, entertainment, food and games for the entire family. With our exciting offering, we are expecting a very large turnout from the expatriate communities. As a charity event, all proceeds will be donated to support our charity projects.
The Kempinski Hotel has generously provided the venue for our Bazaar which will take place over two days from November 9th to November 10th. The event will be heavily promoted through the media and by the hotel.

Highlights:

– Over 70 vendors offering fashion and accessories, jewelry, handicrafts, health and beauty products, toys, etc.
– Exciting musical and dance performances
– Free wine tasting and makeovers
– Kids corner so parents can enjoy their shopping
– Raffle draw with great prizes

With excellent promotion, the Bazaar is sure to be a big success. Moreover, with your support, we will have more fund to help more people in need.
As a vendor, your table fee will serve as a donation to support our club’s charity projects. The amount will be based on the space available and location (Please refer to the floor plan for details.)  Also, you are invited to donate 1 to 2 prizes with value of CNY 100 – 500 for our raffle draw to help us raise more fund.  All proceeds from the Bazaar will be used to support charity work.
If you are interested, please complete an application form and return it to us before September 30th, 2013.  Should you have any questions, please contact us.  Thank you for your generous support!

Rotary Club of Beijing Bazaar Committee
5 September 2013
Email: rotarybazaar[at]126.com

See the latest updates on membership and some more history of Rotary in China!

https://www.beijing1980.com/?page_id=120

On 16 July 2013 our weekly lunch at Kempinski had on its program a book talk.
In “China’s Superbank”, authors Henry Sanderson and Michael Forsythe, both Bloomberg journalists working in Beijing, are inside the engine-room of China’s economic growth, the China Development Bank. Anyone wanting a primer on the secret of China’s economic success need look no further than China Development Bank (CDB), which has displaced the World Bank as the world’s biggest development bank, lending billions to countries around the globe to further Chinese policy goals.

In their presentation Henry Sanderson and Michael Forsythe outlined how the bank is at the center of China’s domestic economic growth and how it is helping to expand China’s influence in strategically important overseas markets.
Henry Sanderson is a Bloomberg reporter and co-author of ‘China’s Superbank: Debt, Oil and Influence – How China Development Bank is Rewriting the Rules of Finance’
Henry Sanderson has been a Beijing-based reporter for Bloomberg News since April 2010. Prior to that, he was a reporter for the Associated Press in Beijing and Dow Jones in New York. He is a graduate of the University of Leeds (with a bachelor’s in Chinese and English literature) and Columbia University (with a master’s in East Asian Studies).
In my book “Toxic Capitalism” I mention in detail China’s strategies, successes and failures to get hold on the much needed resources such as oil, gas, minerals, food as they function as “the factory of the world”. CDB is mentioned but is not my focus in the book. Our consulting company is involved in some projects abroad where CDB is the potential financing source.
We also had the pleasure of seeing again Rotarian Norton, our Brazilian friend.
I am now back again as the official Sergeant-at-Arms after being the permanent standby in the recent years…

Talking about finance: option trading

 

On Monday 15 July 2013, we had our Rotaract social evening. This time in Great Leap Brewing  (www.greatleapbrewing.com) a few hundred meters west on Holiday Inn Express on Chunxiu Lu, a bit hard to find as  … there is no sign for the “NO 12 BREWPUB”. Interesting place, pretty big, many great locally brewed beers, good burgers and reasonable prices. Not to wonder, the place was pretty packed.

Nice evening and we were lucky the 24 hour rain stopped right in time to go there safely.
See also some pics from the 15 June Rotary Ball, with our Rotaract volunteers.