Old China Hands

Old China Hands Lunch 3 July

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Back again

Another Old China Hands Lunch 3 July after the virus outbreak. Attendance was up with a total of 22.
Members blocked abroad and unable to return “home” are still close to 30.
Some are to give up on China for good, with their business, family life and social life wrecked. Beijing authorities don’t care and there is no end in sight for the misery, while Shanghai seems to to be looking for solutions.

Next lunch

Planned for Friday 7 August. Hopefully no “unexpected problems”.

Old China Hands Lunch 5 June

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Back again

Old China Hands Lunch 5 June marked our second lunch after the virus outbreak. Attendance was still pretty modest for several reasons: we were 17. All in all not too bad.
I have tried to have an idea about how many of our members are blocked abroad and unable to return “home”. Well, it is not a nice picture with close to 30 of our usual attendants unable to return; probably there are more, some did not yet reply to me. As I mentioned earlier, I expect many to give up on China for good, with their business, family life and social life wrecked. Chinese authorities couldn’t care less and there is no end in sight for the misery. China is losing many friends, that’s for sure. Really sad.

 

See the dishes I chose. The restaurant is now also well known for its collection of fresh flowers, done by Susan.

Next lunch

Tentatively planned for Friday 3 July.
All of Morel’s Restaurant staff has been tested for the virus and the restaurant is regularly checked by the hygiene department. As the restaurant observes all regulations strictly, they are one of the locations still allowed to operate.
I also must stress again to our members that the restaurant is giving us a very special deal and they should respect that. You are expected to pay for any extras. If you don’t like it, you go somewhere else.

Old China Hands Lunch is back

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

A modest restart

Old China Hands Lunch is back after a 3 months “pause”. As 1 May was the first Friday of the month we decided to do it on Friday 8 May, giving us also more time to evaluate the “situation”.
I asked our members for an update on their situation and sadly many of our regulars are stuck outside of China as they are not allowed to return to China. They are in UK, USA, Australia, Thailand, Germany, name it. It does not look good when they could return, I think not before October in the best case.
That is obviously dramatic as many have office and home here with all their belongings. Their business is, the least to say, seriously affected.
Some say they will leave China for good. I can’t blame them. China and in particular Beijing is turning against foreigners and racism and xenophobia pop up regularly.
China for sure knows how to turn friends into enemies. And they couldn’t care less.

Our lunch

We were exactly 16 and I insisted on all observing the rules of social distancing, 4 per table, temperature check etc.
Some were still too scared to “mingle”, some simply freaked out. Oh well.

Anyway who came was pretty happy and Morel’s Restaurant served us well.
I am planning the next lunch for Friday 5 June.

 

RIP Old China Hand

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Our Beijing little club

Calm down folks. RIP Old China Hand applies to a Hong Kong bar, not our little club, Yes, our last lunch was in January, see the report.
Obviously February, March and probably April is cancelled in view of COVID-19.

RIP Old China Hand (now for real)

That applies to a bar in Hong Kong, I learned about it through one of little club members who sent me a pic of the closed bar.
So I did some research and found out it was a well-known bar in Hongkong, been there for decades, it had to move once (guess why, increase in rent, as always).

Read here:
In 2015 The Old China Hand, one of the most famous pubs in Wan Chai, has been suddenly cleared out and had its sign removed. A veteran 45-year tenant of Lockhart Road, the bar appears to have shut down.
See: https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1853752/rent-rise-forces-old-china-hand-hong-kong-move-home

It later moved but it seems to be closed again.
They even had a Facebook page, stopped now.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/category/Pub/Old-China-Hand-1817887905128143/

Last location would be: 1C Davis Street, Kennedy Town, Hong Kong
The pics: I tried to identify the two different locations, Lockhart Road and Kennedy Town. See the names.
Sad! did not know about it earlier – I also lived in Hong Kong, in 1989, for one year.