Many memories

On 27 June 2024 I had the pleasure to attend the Luxembourg National Day in Beijing, in the garden of the ambassador’s residence. Always special for me as I have many souvenirs of the early eighties when I was a close friend of the first Luxembourg ambassador, Carlo Ketter, and his lovely wife. We were both living in the Beijing Hotel and we met many times. I also helped a bit with advice when he was dealing with the challenges to fix the old building, said to be the former Pakistan embassy. It is located in a hutong, the only diplomatic building to be in the old city as far as I know. The small buildings at the entrance served as the embassy in the eighties, later the embassy moved to a modern office building on gongti bei lu.
The building is old but charming and has a beautiful garden.
I was also close to the first secretary of the embassy, Dory Schmitz. Many memories of the eighties in Beijing…

A sumptuous buffet

Schindler’s did the catering and offered a wide choice of goodies to the far over 300 invited guests. This time the weather was not that hot and bearable…

Nice to meet some fellow Rotarians as well as our Belgian ambassador. Also met again our Belgian friend from Arcelor Mittal.
A Chinese Vice Minister attended the reception.

The food

You can watch here a short video showing the event with a view on some of the dishes. There were also stands with ice cream and of course drinks. (Need VPN in China)
I have been several times to Schindler’s Tankstelle in Beijing, recommended!

This is the Sanlitun restaurant. Schindler has another new and big location at the south gate of Ritan Park. They do a lot of catering.