Urinals in China are a challenge for Chinese men

Caution slippery floor

Any man who has been in China has had the unpleasant surprise to visit a men’s toilet (well yeah, we are not supposed to visit the women’s toilet). Indeed, urinals in China are a challenge for Chinese men, and a danger for us.
Chinese men have a big problem. Or maybe is it a small problem?
The floors are usually flooded with urine as the men apparently overestimate their reach. Not that they actually care.
If it is a matter of being “short” the new problem is also they often talk or text on their mobile without paying any attention and not even caring to aim, you need both hands for the mobile you know.
They thus obviously also never notice the instructions to “pay attention”.

Trying to educate the men

People have tried to put notices and educate the men. Does not work.
If we would remind the “others” they are missing the target, we would mostly get into trouble as Chinese have become arrogant and hostile to foreigners at times.
Well, creativity does exist in China. So now guys, aim for the ball in the goal, will you?
Oh well we need some decades.
This is why in most “star hotels” you have a friendly old man who is constantly cleaning the floor. But as some pictures show, even in a five-star hotel you better watch for the slippery floor.
I wonder if the ladies have similar problems? Won’t ask…

CCTV shooting with 6renyou at Morel Restaurant

CCTV invades the restaurant

On Sunday 18 December a complete crew of CCTV (Kids) invaded Morel’s Restaurant in Gongti Bei Lu for a CCTV shooting with 6renyou to introduce Belgian food. The restaurant is by far the most authentic Belgian restaurant in Beijing, not to say in China. It is frequented not only by expats but also by a number of top Chinese officials.
The website www.6renyou.com is in Chinese only and targets Chinese to travel abroad; they also showed cuisine from Israel in the restaurant Biteapitta (Tongli Studio, Sanlitun). See http://www.cityweekend.com.cn/beijing/directory/biteapitta
The idea behind it all is to show on CCTV several types of foreign cuisine, also to prepare Chinese tourists who are to travel and visit Belgium, and other countries.

It took more than a half day as CCTV takes it very seriously, preparing all in detail, installing the proper lighting and sound system.
The stars were obviously Renaat and his wife Susan who explained in great detail the history of the typical Belgian dishes.
I also came on for a short while to give some comments.

The dishes at Morel’s Restaurant

See some of the dishes: fish soup (with croutons, garlic, chees,…): tomato filled with grey shrimp from the North Sea; steak tartare (raw prepared beef); Belgian beef stew (prepared with beer); Brussels pepper steak; endive with ham gratinated; mussels; blood sausage; waffle with whipped cream and ice cream.
Renaat also received a big birthday cake from CCTV.
My favorite dish? Well, all of the above but in my opinion the signature dish of Morel’s is the endive dish (chicon as we call it). There is no restaurant in Belgium that makes the dish as good as Renaat. Except of course for my late mother!

The chef celebrates his birthday

Chefs also celebrate!

On Saturday 17 December Renaat Morel organized a great lunch for some friends, yes the chef celebrates his birthday too. He is the owner of the Morel’s Restaurant on Gongti Bei Lu, with his wife Susan.

I found him a real special red wine, from my collection:
CHATEAU SMITH HAUT LAFITTE 1947
GRAND VIN MARTILLAC

Happy birthday to our friend Renaat!

Beijing Rotary and Rotaract closing the year

Last “official” lunch of the Beijing Rotary Club

Beijing Rotary and Rotaract closing the year, first with Rotaract having the last lunch at Kempinski before everyone disappears to celebrate the holidays, in Beijing or in the home country.

Rtn Wei presented a banner he had received from RC Baden-Baden Merkur.
Visiting Rtn Bjorn exchanged a banner with PE Russell.
Visiting Rtn Thibaud presented his club of Discovery Bay, Hong Kong. New club and no banner yet.
Rtn Didier was awarded a Paul Harris Fellowship by the club while he was away from China. It was to acknowledge his outstanding contribution towards club events. Rtn Gilbert has kept Didier’s certificate and finally passed it on to him to him.

Rotaract Social Night

As the Winter Ball had to be cancelled – not enough tickets sold – our Rotaractors held a “Social Night” at Legend Beer in the evening of Friday 16 December. We got a great deal at Legend Beer so that we went home, let’s say “pretty happy”.

Nice mix of Rotaractors and Rotarians, see here some of the happy participants.

Beijing Rotary AGM in Johnnie Walker House

Our Beijing Rotary Annual General Meeting

On 29 November Our Club held its AGM in Johnnie Walker House near Qianmen. I visited the House earlier, see:
The Johnnie Walker House in Beijing: simply impressive, see previous post.

So I did not join the tour with the others.
Fifteen members attended thus ensuring the required quorum. The amendments to the club bylaws were approved unanimously. President and incoming board members 2017/18 were also elected:

President             Russell B.
IPP                      Daniel R.
President Elect    Martin G.
Secretary             (position open)
Service                 Lucy M.
Foundation           Jens H.
Membership         Daniel A.
Treasurer             Rene S.
Youth                   Sven H.

(pics provided c/o Rtn Lucy)

A busy evening for our AGM in Johnnie Walker House

Ms. Paloma Sanchez donated a ring to the club for auction during our upcoming Ball on 25 February 2017.
The auction of three whiskeys donated by Johnnie Walker was a big success!
As speaker we had the Swiss Ambassador Dr. de Dardel on the topic of Innovation.
Ambassador de Dardel spoke about innovation in China and Switzerland. Ranking on top of innovative countries, Switzerland has always emphasized innovation with a view of improving people’s livelihood. China and Switzerland have established a cooperation in the field of innovation.

President Daniel R performed the induction of Aish K. who transferred from RC Shanghai.
Rtn Eli K. was made honorary member of our club in acknowledgement of his dedication and continuous support to the club.
Thanks to Rtn Eli for arranging the venue.