Wood Garden House in Beijing

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

A colorful new venue

Wood Garden House in Beijing or as it says “Wood Forest Garden Restaurant” is in Sanlitun, Courtyard 4, Gongti Beilu east of Hotel InterContinental Beijing Sanlitun.
Not much about it on Google but it is on Dianping and mentioned by Thebeijinger:

“A spacious eatery with two floors and a theme that borders on jungle-like, serving Spanish and Latin-style food. There’s also a large stage that hosts alternating performances of DJs and live music.
The menu is full of Instagram-worthy photos of salads, power bowls, soups, and entrées including the herbal salad with hot spring egg, chestnut pumpkin and creamy mushroom soups, pasta with shrimp and asparagus, chicken quesadilla, tacos, a Spanish seafood paella, and more.”

Location is of the former Salsa Caribe

Located behind the Pacific Century Plaza at Changhong Qiao east of Sanlitun, this was Beijing’s best place to go for Latin music lovers and salsa aficionados, featuring a large dance floor, high-tech DJ booth, and house Latin band – a raucous blend of sweat, sin and extremely tight pants. Sadly gone.

The place is now attracting many young Chinese to make tons of selfies. Food is reasonable.  Decoration is indeed colorful and “different”.

Rotary lunch 20 July 2021

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

I quit

We had our Rotary lunch 20 July 2021 in Kempinski, this time not anymore as Sergeant-at-Arms as I quit for “obvious personal reasons”. Well I can finally enjoy the food, the company and listen to the speaker!

Speaker was Sean McLeod, consular officer in US Embassy in Beijing. Topic: “ “How I Became a Foreign Service Officer”.
He told his story on how he become a diplomat after a diverse career, with posts in Indonesia, among among others. He was deeply involved with the evacuation flights from Wuhan last year.

Meeting Highlight as in the Newsletter

Sean McLeod is a consular officer from the US Embassy in Beijing. In this captivating talk, Sean described the trajectory of his career and highlighted the reasons why he decided to quit the private sector to serve his country. It all started with medicine. Sean first studied to become a doctor, but finding it not what he wanted, he made a big jump to computer programing and moved to Japan to live overseas for the first time. Finding it not fulfilling still, he went on to study for an MBA and later became a management consultant for IBM for 15 years. While as many people would have just settled down at what they had at this stage in life, Sean was not satisfied. Deciding to join the foreign service, he then took the foreign service examination and after successfully passing it, took the foreign service training on teamwork and how to achieve consensus on issues while representing US interests abroad. Sean’s current tour is in the consular section at the US Embassy in Beijing.

Chez Soi Bistro in Beijing

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Been there more than once!

I had several visits to Chez Soi Bistro in Beijing, see also earlier post: “Discovered Chez Soi“. That was in August 2020. Since then the bistro has tried its best to improve the food, organize events and have more staff.

See some pictures from my visits on 2 July, and in May on 12th, 16th, 17th, 24th and 29th.
On 29 May Chez Soi celebrated its anniversary with a free buffet and drinks. It was a pleasant evening.

New menu

I tried the couscous, it’s tasty but not the real stuff. The have specials every day, they organize a number of activities and also have life music every Wednesday. Caroline is trying her best!
Sometimes the dishes take a “creative” turn away from the official recipe (e.g. the Niçoise Salad) but it is all enjoyable. Some of the pizzas are tasty. The Basque Chicken got also better.

Old China Hands 2 July lunch

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Always well attended!

Our Old China Hands 2 July lunch again drew a full house with 37 attendants!
Renaat Morel and myself made a frame of the previous celebration, one frame above the fish tank in the restaurant and one frame in my office.

This time no special performance, we all simply enjoyed each other’s company, and the food.
Later in the day the restaurant gave me this BIG “hongbao” for my support to the restaurant. Hm I am rich?

Next lunch

Next round planned for Friday 6 August, right in the middle of Beijing sauna week. Hopefully not flood week. The disastrous floods in many regions were really horrible but also showed so much solidarity.
Hopefully Beijing will be spared, I still remember the deadly floods here years ago.

Pole dancing is a sport (part 2)

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

More about pole dancing

Yes pole dancing is a sport (part 2), see part 1 .
More about what happens in China and the history of the new sport and fitness craze.

The Way of The Pole

China’s pole dance pioneers vie for a spot on the international stage.
14 July 2013 See: https://www.theworldofchinese.com/2013/07/the-way-of-the-pole/

Cao Nao poses on a pole over the Tianjin skyline on the roof of the CPDSTC studio, where China’s pole dancers go to become pros

I quote:
The China Pole Dance Sports & Training Center located in the heart of Tianjin is where China trains its premier pole dancers. The sport is getting a lot of attention and not just because of the opportunity for lechery. When standing in a room full of  beautiful, scantily clad women, it should be made clear that it is actually a room full of beautiful, scantily-clad champions.
Though pole dancing has a reputation as more of a striptease than a sport, it is taken very seriously by a select few. Everything from the height of  the pole to the duration of the song is taken into account, and points are deducted mercilessly; a minor slip or a bent leg could cost you an entire point out of 30.

Why is Pole Dancing Sexualized?

https://pickcreativehobbies.com/index.php/2020/11/20/why-is-pole-dancing-sexualized/

I quote:
The reason pole dancing is sexualized is because of its western modern origins where traveling circus-like crews would mount tents with a pole in the center holding it up and women would seductively dance around the pole in order to entice the male crowd.
From there it jumped to bars and clubs where the sexualization became even more accentuated. Clubs would build stages with the intention of having women dancing and stripping to attract the male clientele.

But as more and more people started participating in the activity and the popularity of the hobby grew, different avenues started to emerge especially when the physical benefits where acknowledged.
A massive change started to occur and the notion of stripping started drifting farther and farther from simple pole dancing to take a more sportsmanlike approach.
Pole dancing evolved from its infancy stage and matured becoming more of a means to achieve fitness rather than a form of sensual entertainment.

For too long the words pole dancing has been associated with stripping because both strippers and pole dancers use a pole to perform their routines.
it’s origins definitely tainted the term, but it’s an outdated notion, people need to be aware of the differences between now and then, there’s a need for more information about the topic; this article will be helpful in putting a stop to misconceived, outdated ideas.

Hilton Hotel: pole dancing competition

As I posted on 24 November 2010:
https://blog.strategy4china.com/2010/11/sexy-pole-dancing-in-beijing/

Zeta Bar at the Hilton held one more pole dancing competition on Saturday 13 November 2010 – I had missed the first one in May. The bar was fully packed and we “did not have a seat”. Lucky us, we were sent upstairs where we ended up having the best view of all.
Some of the girls were great and “attractive”, can’t say more, my wife was there too!
I had intended to stay till midnight but the whole family decided to watch till the very end and we were back home at 2 am.
See the pictures in the original post.

The movie – Posted on 6 December 2010:
https://blog.strategy4china.com/2010/12/sexy-pole-dancing-in-beijing-the-movie/