Discovering another Chinese “fast food” restaurant chain: Xibei

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Xibei serves Shanxi specials and has many outlets all over Beijing. I call it Chinese fastfood because of the large crowds, the queing and the rather cheap prices. My visit was on 7 January 2016.
I had to wait for well over 20 min. at the Ginza Mall outlet (Dongzhimen), made interesting as I could watch some of the cooks preparing the food. All pretty well organized and clean.
I was told the “long-hour stewed fish” was recommended but by the time we ordered they had run out. Oh well next time.

The dishes were pretty good and I liked their popular cold noodle dish, among others. Price very reasonable: no drinks (free water) and food (plenty) for two: some RMB 110.
Always puzzling why some restaurants are so popular while others remain rather empty. One of the mysteries of Beijing, at least for me.

That special day: 31 December

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Well, it is not really mystery anymore I guess. That day is also my birthday.
A special day for me, to review both the calendar year and my year.
I follow a ritual since many years: I disappear for the day to get away from everything.
But the evening is obvious: the family heads to Morel’s Restaurant for the celebration of my birthday and New Year’s Eve.

This time only the two of us as our daughter Valerie has moved to Brussels, but ended up spending her Christmas and New Year with our friends in Vienna. Stella, the wife of our good friend Peter joined us as Peter was on a concert tour in Europe.
As it happens a number of good friends were there too to wish me a nice Bday.
Thanks to all, and thanks to Susan and Renaat for the great food and service.
Oh well the pics are not that great because we were simply too busy enjoying ourselves!

Sino Matters: great Christmas reunion

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

I missed it in 2014 but this time 7 December 2015 I made it to Kurt’s great Christmas party where I could meet the teachers and other students of this exceptional school in Beijing to learn Chinese.
See: https://www.beijing1980.com/learning-chinese/

I wish they had more lessons – I would gladly continue!
Nice opportunity also to meet some well known personalities of the Beijing foreign community, and friends.

Beijing Rotaract starting up in 2016

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Despite the fact most meetings were “cancelled” the Beijing Rotaractors remained active over the New Year.
So, on 5 January 2016 we had a social evening in Great Leap Brewery (sanlitun) , and as the pictures tell: it was fun!

On 12 January we had our first “official” meeting with our President Anissa back in town. At the last minute we changed location, run ning away from the (noisy) The Bookworm to Lyrics Cafe & Bar in Sanlitun SOHO, the B1 level and at the very end next to the staircase.
Obviously again a large turnout to plan the activities for the next months, followed by a cozy get-together.
On a different note: I got a picture early January from Rtn Monica Nabureera from the Rotary Club of Kampala Nsambya, Uganda, where she gave our Rotary Club banner. The club was very happy to receive it. She had visited our Beijing Rotary Club some weeks ago.

Rotary lunch of 15 December with speaker Charlie Parton

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

It was the last lunch of the year. As usual they forgot the birthday boys and girls of December, so once again no cake for me!

The speaker was Charlie Parton, of the EU Delegation; Topic: China’s Five-Year Plan.
Charlie Parton has been a Counsellor for Political Affairs at the Delegation of the European Union in China since 2011.
China’s Five-Year Plan is a general guideline for the country’s management and development, setting a direction. The government discussed its 13th Five-Year Plan in October 2015, covering the period of 2016 to 2020. It will be expanded before its official presentation in March 2016.
The Five-Year Plan contains very important messages: Continued economic growth with rebalancing and reform; sustainability, with a focus on the environment, on air and food safety; strengthening the army and the management of government. One of the themes is innovation which will be supported by repatriating experts and improving the education system. An emphasis is on China going global. SOE reform, land reform, tax reform, and price reform figure in the plan.
Unfortunately I missed much of the talk as I had to run out to take part of the Press Conference in CCTV for the Sanxia 3D movie (see other post).151215 rotary10.JPG

(thanks to Celine for the pictures and report)

President Daniel hosted the induction of a new member, Mr. Christoph W. President Daniel handed over the Rotary pin and induction certificate. Rotarian Christoph is sponsored by President Daniel.
President Daniel exchanging banner with visiting Rtn Daniel Counio
Tom Stader gave an update on the Library Project; our club as well as the Shanghai club have been working very closely to set up many libraries in poor schools, in China.