The 18th China International Friendship and Culture Festival

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Thanks to our friend Harvey to let me join “Spring Festival Celebration and International Friendship Ambassador Award Ceremony”, on Sunday 8 February in the Beijing International Hotel Convention Center. We had a great table and we chatted a lot.

The hotel is pretty big with many meeting rooms, some shops, artifacts and art displays, large atriums in several unexpected corners. Next to the hotel is the Convention Center, often used by the Beijing government. Looks overall pretty quiet.
The event was a bit too “Chinese” if I may say so, in a not-that-good way.
It started at 5:30 pm and we had first to go through the performances, speeches and award ceremony till we got food around 8:00 pm. Everybody was hungry. No beer, no wine. We suspect it was because there were many diplomats from Muslim countries. So far so good for mutual respect: why can’t we have a beer at least? Certainly not a budget problem as beer costs less than the soft drinks we were served. Some were not too convinced about the quality of the food but I found it reasonable.
There were several empty tables, a bit everywhere, that did not look good. The waiters would still pile up dishes while nobody was sitting there. Our table, not lacking initiative, went to collect those to add more on our table.
The event management and design team has a lot to improve. The (impressive) acrobat lady from Taiyuan was dressed in red with a red background: we could hardly see her. Music was playing loudly when it shouldn’t. And so on. I have seen other Chinese events amazingly well organized.
The awards all went to …, oh well I don’t know how to say that. But zero awards to EU, North America, Australia and alike. Looks like we are not on the Friendship list… On the other hand, I did not see anybody from Western embassies. Anyway I was happy to meet again the ambassadors of Benin, Senegal and Vietnam.
The “awards” ribbons had their English upside down… Another point was the “present” we got: a massive and heavy book. All calligraphy, not exactly something most foreigners are happy to carry … and keep…

Full house: Old China Hands lunch

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

We had our monthly Old China Hands lunch on Friday 6 February, at our usual Morel’s Restaurant. Attendance is always a bit unpredictable as most people are busy and many often travel. This time I had a chance to check our maximum capacity: 36. We might squeeze in 4 more to reach 40 but that would be the maximum if we keep it to that part of the restaurant only. We ended up wit 37 people. So, people, confirm your attendance or…

Again everybody seemed pretty happy to mingle, chat and obviously enjoy the set lunch (a real bargain for just RMB 98!).
Next lunch is Friday 6 March. I will be back just in time from Melbourne and I hope to send the mails from there. Who wants to join, send me a mail.
Our list is growing while I am about to clean up some non-active members.

Social Rotaract evening in Home Plate BBQ

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

On Monday 2 February another nice social evening in Home Plate BBQ, a popular place and usually packed. They have some great dishes and my favorites are Pulled Pork Sandwich and Pulled Pork Plate. They also have a wide range of American beer and locally brewed ales. The Wifi on the other hand never works!
See:  http://homeplatebbq.com/?page_id=35

Rotaract social evenings are always popular, even being in the “low season”.

Ghent, my hometown in Belgium

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Gent (Ghent / Gand)

I always write about Beijing but I should not forget Ghent, my hometown in Belgium, where I was born, grew up, went to school and university.
I always write about Beijing but I should not forget my hometown, Gent (Ghent / Gand) in Belgium, where I was born, grew up, went to school and university.
I sometimes miss it all, looking at the pictures I took in the hotel garden, a small family hotel near Sint-Denijs-Westrem that is now closed and again a private villa. So green, so blue, so unlike Beijing…

Pictures are from Jan de Cock, (Keizer Karel), the Internet and myself.

Ghent, a tourist destination

There are many things to see and talk about. Gent is rather small (for Chinese standards!) but it has a number of unique historical sites, too many to mention here. So, just a few words.

The story of  “Belfort” – Belfry of Ghent and the Golden Dragon
The bell tower is 95 m high and construction probably started before 1314. It was modified several times, especially the top piece that was originally in wood.
There are some complicated stories about the Dragon, involving the Crusades, Norway, Bruges etc. But the real story is a bit different while some still refer to the Crusades. The Dragon is much the symbol of the city and its protector.
The dragon was made in 1377 on order of the then city government. It was already on top of the Belfort before 1401.
The dragon is very popular in the city and at certain occasions it was throwing fire. The first time that happened was on 17 March 1500 on the occasion of the baptism of Prins Karel. As from 1595 it was done regularly. The last time the Dragon threw fire was in 1819 during the visit of the Prins Van Oranje.
The Belfries of the cities of Ieper and Doornik also have a dragon on their bell tower but the Ghent dragon is by far the biggest being 3.55 m long, 1.5 m wide, 1.8 m high and with a weight of 398 Kg. It is made of iron and covered with golden-plated copper plates.
See here (in Dutch) historical details of “het Belfort van Gent”:
http://www.scholieren.com/werkstuk/55
http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belfort_van_Gent

There is also a beer “Gulden Draak”. I had it for the first time in … Indianapolis (USA, November 2014), the big bottle. In January 2015 I found it in Beijing, the small bottle, see it along with a small Strop beer.

Stroppendragers

Indeed, that brings us to our nickname: “Stroppendragers”, that means:
The people of Ghent came to be known as ‘Noose Wearers’. Today, they are proud of their nickname, “stroppendragers” or “noose bearers”, but back then that certainly wasn’t the case.
Stroppendragers or also de Stroppen is the nickname of Gentenaars, people from Gent.
After a short revolution in Gent against him, Emperor Charles V (Keizer Karel V) the emperor arrested the leaders of the rebellion, killed 25 of them and then let the others go through the city with a noose around their neck, on 3 May 1540.
The noose is a potent symbol of resistance against any form of tyranny en bad government. People from Gent are said to be stubborn and who also leave room for other opinions and favor free scientific research. So I guess I perfectly fit the bill.
During the famous “Gentse Feesten”, the festivities in summer time, there is re-enactment of the procession (see the pictures). On the occasion, many people put a noose around the neck )black & white, the colors of the city shield). As for the Gentse Feesten, I have in my office a unique poster from 1993…
And of course we have Strop beer here that I drink in Morel’s restaurant! And I also managed to empty the huge bottle!
See: http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stroppendragers

A new German restaurant in Beijing: Hacker-Pschorr Bräuhaus

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Our friend Rotarian René has finally done the official opening of Hacker-Pschorr Bräuhaus!
The name Hacker-Pschorr dates back to the marriage of Teresia Hacker and Joseph Pschorr. Under the couple’s leadership, Hacker-Pschorr advanced to become Munich’s leading major brewery in the 18th century.
“As a vibrant, traditional brewery with deep roots in Bavaria, Hacker-Pschorr delivers the highest quality and finest art of brewing according to the Bavarian Purity Law, while embodying Bavarian characteristics of conviviality, earthiness, tradition and craft brewing like no other brand. This is the „Himmel der Bayern“ („Heaven of Bavaria“), and this is what Hacker-Pschorr has stood for since 1417.”
See: http://www.hacker-pschorr-brauhaus.com/

I had already tried out some of the dishes (and the beer, obviously) in December 2014 during the trial run, and gave my feedback to René. See the dates of the pictures. The restaurant will be fully operational after Chinese New Year.
The Sanlitun location is on Xindong Lu across the street from the Bentley Car Showroom. The restaurant is really large and cozy. There is a bakery and meat shop on the street level. And it is in walking distance of the German embassy.
It joins other German restaurants in the area: Drei Kronen 1308 Brauhaus, a bit further south on Gongti Dong Lu, and Taps – German Bar & Grill (Sanlitun Tongli area, same building as Luga’s, close to 3.3). It will all depend on management, price/quality…