Life in the city

Old China Hands Lunch 3 October

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

In the holiday week

For the Old China Hands Lunch 3 October we had massive “cannot make it” as many of our members were away, we still managed to have 20 people. The lunch was in the middle of a “golden week” – National Day and Mid-Automn Festival, also known as the Moon Festival or Mooncake Festival – a harvest festival celebrated in Chinese culture. It is held on the 15th day of the 8th month of the Chinese lunar calendar with a full moon at night.

Labubu wishes

As always all happy enjoying the food and the company in Morel’s Restaurant. I went for the soup that was actually a special lobster soup done by chef Renaat, the preparation took several days of cooking and it was super delicious.

The menu, see the pics:

  • one local draft OR glass of house wine OR soft drink
  • Russian eggs salad OR salade Niçoise OR fresh daily soup (lobster soup or vegetable soup)
  • pork piccata provençale style served with grilled tomato and pan-fried potatoes OR beef tenderloin Stroganoff served with market vegetables and steamed rice OR red snapper Provençale style served with vegetables and mashed potatoes
  • daily desert )pancakes with fruit)

The following lunch is planned for Friday 7 November 2025.

What is your birthday?

We plan to celebrate the birthdays of members present, so we will ask for the date (day – month). Not an obligation but recommended!

Mobility Index Report

How does Beijing rank in terms of getting around easily?
2024 Urban Mobility Readiness Index, a ranking of 70 major cities worldwide on their preparedness for mobility’s next chapter. For its sixth edition, the index introduces a new sub-index focusing on technology adoption alongside customized actionable recommendations for each city.

Very interesting report about urban mobility. Beijing is somewhere in the middle for 2023, see the picture. For 2024 Beijing went up to no. 20! Despite its huge size getting around by public transport (subway, bus – massive network) and share bikes is relatively easy. Not mentioned is that traffic can be dangerous in bike lanes and sidewalks, unsafe with e-bikes terrorizing everybody and general disrespect of traffic regulations. I bike and walk a lot and have no car.
How Beijing Performs Across Urban Mobility Targets: here the link to the updated report with all details.

Old China Hands Lunch 6 September

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

End of summer

Our Old China Hands Lunch 6 September 2025 marked the end of summer and holidays. Beijing just had recovered from the turmoil of the military parade of 3 September, Dongchen District had not yet removed the security barriers – Chaoyang had it all cleaned up.
With many of our members busy, the turnout of 25 was reasonable. A few new faces were welcomed.


The menu, see the pictures:

  • sliced smoked salmon stuffed with seafood and garden greens OR poached eggs with wine merchant sauce OR cream of tomato soup
  • fricandeau of beef served with hot cherry and mashed potatoes OR thin-sliced beef tenderloin with black pepper sauce served with vegetables and Belgian frietes OR red snapper Mediterranean style served with daily vegetables and mashed potatoes
  • daily desert

The following lunch is planned for Friday 3 October 2025 (yes, in the holiday week).

Again Gilbert in the news.

It took a long time for my interview to come out, done 23 February 2025 in my office by Chris and his team with a complex equipment setup.

On 10 September it finally came out on YouTube and it’s worth the wait. Chris did a professional job as always.

The interview by Chris Petersen-Clausen is part of the series “Living History”: Stories from the Opening of China is the new series of documentary interviews with Chinese, Americans and others about the experiences they had in the period between the reopening of China under Deng Xiaoping in 1979 and the Shanghai Expo in 2010. These crucial years and the people-to-people exchanges made during this time are a period whose memory we want to preserve with this series. Many of the stories that are being recorded have never before been documented for the public. If you, too have a story from this time that you would like to tell us please do get in touch with Chris at chris@memostothefuture.com – they are continuously filming more interviews.

So here is my story in “Living History”: Gilbert Van Kerckhove – Building the Bird’s Nest Stadium in Beijing.

It all began with an unusual job interview in 1980. Gilbert Van Kerckhove, a young Belgian engineer, was interviewing for a job that nobody else seemed to want. That led him to Beijing, where the engineer and businessman built power stations, the Jin Mao skyscraper, changed a law prohibiting the construction of subways and served as Negotiations Director for the construction of the Bird’s Nest stadium for the 2008 Olympics.

Old China Hands Lunch 1 August 2025

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Good turnout

The turnout for the Old China Hands Lunch 1 August 2025 was unexpectantly better than I calculated: we were 30! Many people on holiday and away from Beijing.
Yes it was hot but so was the chatting. And the food of Morel’s Restaurant was great as always.

See some of the dishes of our menu in the pics.

  • Russian eggs salad OR Belgian endive salad with blue cheese sauce OR fresh daily soup
  • pork piccata provençale style served with grilled tomato and pan-fried potatoes OR thin-sliced beef tenderloin with wine merchant sauce served with market vegetables and sauteed potatoes OR pan-fried snapper with mustard sauce served with daily vegetables and mashed potatoes
  • daily desert

Gilbert Internet star in … Fujian

Gilbert was invited to the World Internet Conference in Quanzhou, Fujian. A mega event with 800 participants from China and many countries. The program was very busy, also with an outstanding cultural evening and a welcome dinner where I met the Governor of Fujian Province. I was taken to the Interview Room to face a crowd of journalists. 

I attended as Rotating Chairman of UWEE. See here the link to their official newsletter that also shows a video clip
See here the PDF of the newsletter: 250801 UWEEQuanzhou
Here the link (need VPN in China) for the UWEE clip of the World Internet Conference showing my participation.
Some of the interviews with me published on the Internet, Quanzhou World Internet Conference 24 July 2025, here the YouTube link.

Old China Hands Lunch 4 July 2025

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

 

Independence Day

Some patriotic Americans chose to go eat hot dogs for their national day instead of the Old China Hands Lunch 4 July 2025. And yes many were away so we ended up with 23 attendants who had to brave some bad traffic hurdles and the sauna weather. All enjoyed the food and the company.

The menu, see the pictures:
•    one local draft OR glass of house wine OR soft drink•    tomato stuffed with fish salad OR cooked ham roll stuffed with Russian potato salad OR fresh daily soup
•    thin sliced tenderloin with black pepper sauce served with vegetables and Belgian fries OR fricandon of beef served with hot cherry and mashed potatoes OR red snapper mediterranean style served with daily vegetables and mashed potatoesz
•    daily desert
•    coffee or tea

Next lunch is planned for 1 August. Expect real sauna weather!

Baby trafficking denied

Morel’s staff denied they were engaged in baby trafficking, despite the suspicious activities going on.

Chef Renaat was kept company by the miniskirt gang.
After investigation it is said to be a preparation for a romantic Chinese holiday in late August. Stay tuned!

Beijing restaurant battlefield

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

A long list

As a well-known food vlogger in Beijing I go around a lot and see the scene as a Beijing restaurant battlefield. Many locations open and then close. Rather few survive for a long time. There are many reasons, often the rent being increased dramatically, quality not kept up to standards, poor marketing and promotion, lack of appeal.

Beijing has seen many starting to make Belgian waffles, most went bust, except for Morel’s Restaurant that has them on the menu and Bewaffle, a small outlet close to O’Steak near Chunxiu Lu, Maison Manneke started with a lot of fanfare, they also joined Belgian embassy events. I tried it a few times but the location in SOHO Sanlitun did not have enough turnover. Sadly very few Belgians supported it. It is now a Chinese restaurant.

I liked a lot the cozy American style restaurant in Chunxiu Lu, food was good but it closed recently for reasons not clear. It is now a noodles restaurant.

Cartahge Restaurant was on Dongzhimenwai, operated by our friend Adele – he has gone through some failed restaurant, It was supposed to be North African cuisine like couscous and other. I tried it a few times. Now gone and replaced by some Pakistani restaurant.

East End was a small restaurant and delicatessen place, very nice and good food, that still stayed some time after its related restaurant Apollo next door vanished, a very nice restaurant that seemed to be doing well. We miss both Apolla and East End,

Orbit was a very nice bar restaurant in front of the Workers Stadium, with impressive decoration and wine selection. But it did not attract customers and it is now a Chongqing Hotpot restaurant “Chunying”.

Next to my home, Julong Garden, there has been an endless series of shops and restaurants in the same location. Seems it has bad karma because nothing seemed to survive for long. Last victim was a Xinjiang Restaurant, Ayisha, pretty good, no idea why it closed. It is now Jiangxi restaurant.

I could go on and on as the list of failed restaurants is endless. A restaurant like Morel’s that has been in operation for 25 years is really an exception.

Pushkin Literature Restaurant

As a last example, this Russian restaurant near Morel’s Restaurant was very popular at some point. They also had Russian staff. With COVID the Russians disappeared, Here some media articles.
Thebeijinger: Pushkin Literary Restaurant, a Throwback Hit? We’re Putin Our Money on It. Borscht, breaded pies, blinis and other Russian classics are available at the Yoolee Plaza restaurant.
CGTN:: Russian cuisine brings Russian literature to Beijin
Global Times:  Russian Alexander Pushkin restaurant gains popularity in China, but not just for food.

I visited several times: 10 June 2021, 27 January 2019, 11 February 2019, 6 March 2019. And one day it closed without much explanation.