Life in the city

Beijing Rotary Gala 15 March 2025

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Great attendance

Beijing Rotary Gala 15 March 2025: the Kempinski ballroom hosted over 200 guests who were served a delicious dinner with champagne, wines and more. It was also to celebrate the 101 anniversary of the Rotary Club of Beijing.
Ambassadors of Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Philippines attended along with officials of embassies –  Slovakia, Colombia,. Honduras, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Kenia and more. And besides our Chinese guests, foreign participants from many countries. Rotarians from other clubs joined the members of the Beijing Club.

The Gala is organized to promote the projects of our Rotary Club. See a short overview. Proceeds were collected by the Chinese Hebei Hospital, our partner for the hypospadias project, see details here.

UWEE was a major sponsor and also contributed ten children’s paintings for the silent auction, paintings from the annual exhibition in the Louvre, Paris. See a short introduction of the UWEE Group. The group also contributed to the entertainment.
UWEE issued a short article about the event, see here the Chinese version with a Google translation: 250315 UWEEreport.

Pictures shown are a selection of the many pictures taken during the event, all downsized.

Highlights of the program

  • Reception in Ballroom Foyer started at 6pm; guests were welcomed and some were interviewed by UWEE; the ballroom doors opened at 6:45pm,
  • Rtn Daniel acted as the MC.
  • Speaker: Rene Schmitt, President of Rotary Club of Beijing introduces Hypospadias Partners, President Cao of Hebei Charitable and Deputy Director Cui of Hebei Hospital; film showing the Rotarians Visit to Hebei Hospital on March 1.
  • Performance by Alina, Piano Recital followed by Alina and twin boys, 6 hands piano (UWEE).. The twin boys are the sons of Mr. Yan Fei.
  • Performance – Xinjiang Dance Show (UWEE) – Dongzhimenwai Angran Dance Group (12 ladies aged 65 to 74) – group picture with embassy guests.
  • Group picture of Rotary Members
  • Brian and Kevin playing our favorite tunes.
  • Greg Lutrell and Band – Dancing opened with performance of Cuban dancers (UWEE).

See a small video clip “Rotary Club of Beijing Gala 15 March 2025”

UWEE tables

UWEE Group took four tables, bringing together ambassadors, officials and Chinese friends..

Gilbert as Rotating Chairman of the UWEE Group was the host of the ambassadors table, together with Mr. Yan Fei, President of the Group. The ambassadors of Belgium, Philippines, Luxembourg and Switzerland all enjoyed the evening.

Old China Hands Lunch 7 March

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

 

Animated lunch

The Old China Hands Lunch 7 March was attended by 26 friends in total. I even had the pleasure of having an old friend attending who had just arrived from Belgium in the early morning.

The menu, see the pictures:

  • Russian egg salad OR salade Niçoise
  • pork piccata provençal style served with grilled tomato and pan-fried potatoes OR thin sliced beef tenderloin with wine merchant sauce served with market vegetables and Belgian fries OR pan-fried snapper with mustard sauce served with daily vegetables and mashed potatoes
  • daily desert

Lively discussions as always. Even outside on their bikes – seems this picture has been making the rounds on local media…

At the end we had a mix-up with backpacks. After a frantic search we found the one who had grabbed the wrong one… he was having a nap! They ended up exchanging the backpacks later in the evening.

Next lunch is planned for Friday 4 April 2025.

 

Gilbert on CGTN Dialogue

CGTN Dialogue, interview in my Julong office done on 24 February 2025, first on air on 6 March 19:30.

250224 CGTNweb

The interview is on a couple of platforms. Best is on Youtube by myself.

The original from CGTN is also on Youtube. We added the subtitles.

 

Old China Hands Lunch 7 February

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Nice turnout

The Old China Hands Lunch 7 February 2025 saw a nice turnout of over 30 participants, despite some calling of sick, family issues, mixing up lunch/dinner and more. And icy weather! Otherwise we would have been close to 40!

Gilbert became an Eskimo! Fully equipped for the freezing weather.

Food was great as usual, see some in the pictures:

  • chicken curry salad OR Morel’s chef salad (ham, blue cheese and pan-fried chicken, beef on lettuce) OR f fresh daily soup
  • farmer’s pork sausage with onion sauce served with red cabbage and hotchpotch potatoes OR mini steak minute with blue cheese sauce served with daily vegetables and french fries OR pan-fried snapper with mustard sauce served with daily vegetables and mashed potatoes
  • daily desert

Very lively discussions and the speech by our Chinese Dutch friend Phoa.

Drinkable Rivers with Li An Phoa

See on Spotify

“The sign of a healthy economy should be a drinkable river,” these are the words of Li An Phoa, an environmental activist and our guest for this episode. In 2005, Li An Phoa canoed the full length of the Rupert, a river in Canada. All along the way, she was able to drink water straight from the river. When she returned three years later, this was no longer the case. The river had been poisoned from dams, mining, and industry. Fish died, people got ill, and the delicate balance in the ecosystem was destroyed. Realizing that drinkable rivers are not just a key indicator of ecological health, but community vitality and resilience as well, and that rivers can only be drinkable when economic systems are post-growth, truly democratic, place-based, and respectful of the commons and Indigenous peoples, Li An decided to dedicate her life to re-cultivating drinkable rivers.
Since then, Li An founded the Drinkable Rivers organization and Spring College  and has walked many rivers, using citizen science to test the water quality, training others to do the same, and intervening when a river has been contaminated or is off-balance. Her 1,000-kilometer walk along the river Meuse in Europe was the subject of the documentary Long Walk for Drinkable Rivers. Most recently, she and her partner Maarten van der Schaaf wrote the book Drinkable Rivers: How the river became my teacher.
In this conversation, Li An goes upstream to explain why rivers are no longer drinkable, she offers her vision of a world with drinkable rivers, shares her process for galvanizing communities to care for their watersheds, and suggests invitations for how all of us could contribute to healthier rivers and healthier eco- and economic systems around the world.

Introducing Li An Phoa

Our friend Phoa gave an emotional speech, also introducing his daughter and her book. Proud father!
Happy to receive a copy, In return I gave a copy of my book Toxic Capitalism, about environmental issues.

Our Chinese Dutch friend telling his personal story and introducing his daughter and her book, see the video clip on VIMEO.

Birds visit Beijing

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Adventures with my birds

Birds visit Beijing  see earlier posts:
Beijing birds visiting
and
Beijing birds

Nothing dramatic has changed but I had some new visitors.
Eurasian tree sparrows and spotted doves are the regulars. The Eurasian magpies are afraid to visit except sometimes for drinking, they are a lively gang in the big tree in front of my office.

The Eurasian magpie or common magpie (Pica pica) is a resident breeding bird throughout the northern part of the Eurasian continent. It is one of several birds in the crow family designated magpies, and belongs to the Holarctic radiation of “monochrome” magpies. The Eurasian magpie is one of the most intelligent birds, and it is believed to be one of the most intelligent of all non-human animals.
The other one is the Azure-winged Magpie.
The azure-winged magpie (Cyanopica cyanus) is a bird in the crow family. It is 31–35 cm long and similar in overall shape to the Eurasian magpie (Pica pica) but is more slender with proportionately smaller legs and bill. It has a glossy black top to the head and a white throat. The underparts and the back are a light grey-fawn in color with the wings and the feathers of the long (16–20 cm) tail an azure blue.

Another intruder in the kitchen

A small azure-winged magpie fell down our chimney landing in our kitchen through the gas stove air exhaust. My wife tried to catch it but only managed to catch its feathers from the tail. It then hid in a small corner

Before going to bed I made sure there were no any lights in the kitchen and left the window open. By the morning it had left.
Yes, I told my wife several times we need to install some screen on the chimney and just now a worker came to soon solve the problem… The birds are attracted by the warm air…

A new visitor

I spotted a new bird on my balcony and finally succeeded to take a picture.

The light-vented bulbul, also called the Chinese bulbul, is a species of bird in the bulbul family found in central and southern China, Hong Kong, Macao, and other. Scientific name: Pycnonotus sinensis,
Looking forward to more different visitors, attracted by the corn and drinking water.

Old China Hands Lunch 3 January 2025

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Pretty good attendance

Despite last minute cancellations – several people sick, the Old China Hands Lunch 3 January 2025 had 21 participants, not bad as many people were still away.
The menu, see the pictures:

  • vegetable quiche OR Morel’s chef salad (ham, blue cheese and pan-fried chicken, beef on lettuce) OR fresh smoked  salmon croquettes  OR fresh daily soup
  • beef tenderloin stroganoff served with market vegetables and steamed rice OR meatloaf with black pepper sauce served with market vegetables and mashed potatoes OR red snapper provençale style served with vegetables and mashed potatoes
  • daily desert

Thanks to Khee Liang for the extra pictures.
It was our first lunch in 2025. Next lunch is on Friday 7 February at the start of the Year of the Snake. Chinese New Year is on 29 January, public holiday is from 28 January to 3 February.

The benefits of our monthly lunch

Our lunch combats a change in society that affects Americans, as well as other nations. See here copy of interesting article. Our lunches bring people together – again.
In The Atlantic‘s latest cover story, “The Anti-Social Century” Derek Thompson illuminates America’s loneliness epidemic.
The big thought: Loneliness is no longer a temporary problem in America. Staying home and being alone has become a way of life.
Some eye-popping stats:

  • Americans’ time spent socializing in person dropped 20% between 2003 and 2023, per the American Time Use Survey. Among people younger than 25, it plummeted more than 35%.
  • In that same time, the share of U.S. adults having dinner or drinks with friends on a given night has declined 30%. And the National Restaurant Association says that 74% of 2023 restaurant traffic came from takeout and delivery.
  • A typical teen spends 270 minutes on weekdays and 380 minutes on weekends looking at a phone screen, according to Digital Parenthood Initiative. That’s about 30% of the time they’re awake.

The bottom line: “Practically the entire economy has reoriented itself to allow Americans to stay within their four walls,” Thompson writes. “This phenomenon cannot be reduced to remote work. It is something far more totalizing — something more like remote life.”