Life in the city

Brian & Kevin live in Beijing

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Dinner in Blue Star

We had a lively evening with Brian & Kevin live in Beijing, in Blue Star Restaurant on 25 April 2023. Pretty good turnout with many friends.
It was an evening of Standup Comedy and Live Music, featuring Brian Nelson and guest starring Kevin Gouldmann. Brian is from the USA and has been living in China now for over 2 years. He received a classical theater acting degree from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts and has utilized these skills to enhance his entertainment and business career. Brian shared his Real Lao Wai China experiences and frequent miscommunication challenges. We listened how his life is truly lost in translation. Kevin has been working together with Brian for the past few years, complementing Brian’s presence with solid musical underpinnings.

I personally love their music and whenever possible I attend their performance.
Thorsten of Blue Star did a great job, the spare ribs were really great, Texas BBQ style.

Dinner in Home Plate

Another good excuse to return to Home Plate in Sanlitun to see Brian & Kevin live in Beijing.
We had the pulled pork sandwich and the pulled chicken sandwich, never disappointing. We even ordered a second pulled pork!
As announced by Home Plate: Brian has been entertaining crowds with his music in the USA for more than 20 years. He continues his musical journey here in China and loves connecting with many musicians from around the world.

Kevin studied music composition and guitar in his younger years, and played in numerous bands in America , Germany, and Denmark. He came to Beijing in 2014, working as a master piano maker. He has been working together with Brian for the past few years, complimenting Brian’s stage presence with solid musical underpinnings.

See the VIMEO video.

I was surprised at one point when a pretty girl came to say hi, she knew my food videos on WeChat Channels and loves them. So, a picture with a fan!

 

Old China Hands lunch 7 April

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Back to good numbers

Our Old China Hands lunch 7 April saw improved numbers with 33 attendants. Some people had forgotten about the lunch, but apologized.
We managed to have the service of the restaurant under control as it struggles, as many other restaurants, with shortage of staff.

Time flies, we will celebrate our 10th anniversary of “OCH” during the next lunch, planned for Friday 5 May. Chef Renaat will do a special lunch menu and there will be a surprise artistic event! I hope to see full house.

As always lively conversation and great food.

The famous OCH

Mark continues to flood the media, e.g. about the heartwarming birthday party thrown in Beijing for 75-year-old Mark Levine, an American sociologist, writer, country musician as well as the winner of the Chinese Government Friendship Award. How does he sing his China stories to the world? Again another media post.

But I am also a bit polluting the media, this time with the documentary about the Beijing Central Axis.

On 29 March I was invited to the official launch of the documentary in BRTV. The documentary was aired for several days, I was in the third episode.
I will write a few articles about it later.

Ambassador’s Kitchen in Beijing 4

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Argentinian fusion

Ambassador’s Kitchen in Beijing 4 tells about our experience with Ambassador’s Kitchen trying to show some Argentinian fusion. On 9 January 2023 Renaat Morel and myself were invited to join their shooting in the Mango TV building where they have an imitation restaurant. Previously we were asked to be jury members for Belgium food.

We were supposed to walk into the restaurant as normal guests and then welcomed by the host who showed the menu. That evening we were supposed to taste “Argentinian fusion dishes”. At another table as it happened a German friend of mine, Georg, was tasting a Belgian dish. Small world!

The dishes were OK but honestly we did not see a link to Argentine cuisine. The chicken tasted a bit like Hainanese chicken. The staff did do their best however. For me the best was to taste again Yerba Mate tea, did not have it for decades. And in the real traditional cup!
Again big Mango TV team to do the shooting…

What is Yerba Mate?

It is a stimulating drink, greenish in color, containing caffeine and tannin, and is less astringent than tea. Mate is especially common in Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, and southern Brazil as well as in Syria and parts of Lebanon, where it was introduced from Argentina.
Yerba mate is traditionally consumed from a container called a gourd and sipped with a metal straw that has a filter at its lower end to strain out the leaf fragments.
See the benefits here.

Real Argentinian food

I discovered the Argentinian restaurant Malbec & Beef on 24 March 2023, located a bit north of Raffles Clinic, the building with many restaurants such as Bodega, Turkish Feast and others. I found out they were the restaurant where Ambassador’s Kitchen did previously the shooting for Argentinian cuisine.

We opted for the beef, two different ones (sirloin and rib-eye). We were not disappointed.
You won’t find much of a difference between ribeye and sirloin in terms of nutrition, but sirloin does have less fat content as a leaner cut of steak. If you’re watching fats in your diet, sirloin is usually the better option. However, the vitamin, mineral, and calorie content of both cuts are similar.
The small red wine from Argentina was also very good.

As a special gesture from the manager we were treated with a “provoleta”, gratinated cheese, delicious. It is a famous dish as explained here:
“Provoleta is melted provolone cheese, served hot from the BBQ or oven, with a variety of toppings.  Provoleta hails from Argentina. Traditional Provoleta is made with a unique Argentinian type of provolone cheese.”

Beijing Workers Stadium story 5

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

The new look

Further to our previous post, in Beijing Workers Stadium story 5 some details on how the new Workers Stadium will be different.
A first glance came out in this article of the Beijinger on 1 March 2022.

It mentioned:

– The original layout of two tiers of seating has been changed to four tiers. Additionally, there will be lounges for fans to take a break from the match and enjoy food and refreshments.
– The reconstructed stadium will no longer have a running track. This means viewers in the lower seats will have closer proximity to the field – 8.5 m away from the action, to be exact. Moreover, around 2,000 seats will be added, bringing the total seating capacity of the stadium to 68,000.
– One of the biggest complaints about the old Stadium was that the narrow old roof just barely covered select seats on the uppermost parts of the stadium, with all other areas left uncovered. That won’t be a problem anymore, as the stadium will be equipped with a bigger roof that can cover the entire stadium, thus protecting visitors at all times, whether there’s rain or shine.
– A new underground commercial space will turn the area into an entertainment venue for people to eat, shop, and have fun. The underground complex will also act as a connection between the as of yet to-be-completed subway lines 3 and 7, with plans to connect the space to Taikoo Li in the future.

China Daily

See the article dated 4 October 2022 – “Major sports venue in Beijing to have new look”
“Beijing Workers Stadium, which was put into use in 1959 and has hosted a range of large-scale sports events – including the first National Games, the 1990 Asian Games and some events during the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics – will have a new look after a major reconstruction project that is expected to be finished by the end of the year.”

The article has more good pics of the construction, here the PDF: 221004 CDgongti.

The New Gongti Complex

Another great article in TheBeijinger dated 21 October 2022.
“What the New Gongti Complex Has in Store for Beijing”
See here the PDF with many pics and the interview with Jin Fei, the vice general manager of the operating company behind the remodel: 221021 New Gongti

“There are three main changes that have been made to Gongti. The original stadium had a running track, but after the revamp, the running track has been removed. Another big change lies in how Gongti will be used. More than 100,000 square meters of commercial facilities have been added to the complex, transforming the area into an entertainment venue where people can eat, shop and dine. The new stadium also features a giant underground plaza which soccer fans and fitness enthusiasts can explore.”

Above some pics of the 7 January 2023 article mentioned earlier.

Beijing News 20 August 2020

The online article in Chinese has some remarkable pictures.
Here another article dated 7 August 2020.
See here a few of the pics

The pics in this post are pretty unique!

Beijing Workers Stadium story 4

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Progress made

In our Beijing Workers Stadium story 4 more about the progress of the works around the stadium and the other facilities under construction, a further update on our previous post.
On 10 October 2022 TheBeijinger published an update “Workers’ Stadium Nears Completion As New Additions Unveiled”

On 7 January 2023 theBeijinger published an update “Workers’ Stadium Opening Pushed Back to March“
I quote:

Construction on the New Workers’ Stadium complex is inching ever closer to final completion. But due to delays thanks to lockdowns at the end of the year, the time for New Gongti’s opening, originally set for December 2022, has been pushed back to March 2023, according to Beijing Evening News.
Be that as it may, the new stadium is an awe to look at, with the field itself having been fitted with turf, seating completed, and the two 300 square meter screens at either end of the stadium are currently undergoing testing. What’s more, the statue of workers has returned to its original spot in the complex’s north square, according to the Beijing Evening News report.
Construction on the roof and the facade of the complex ended in October of last year, with testing on interior and exterior stadium lighting still ongoing. As we reported in March of last year, the new Workers’ Stadium will have greater capacity: 2,000 new seats have been added to the total. Plus, four tiers of seating and the erasure of the original stadium’s running track means capacity will top out at 68,000.
Once completed, the New Gongti complex will not only be home to Beijing Guo’an football club, but the complex surrounding the stadium will host fitness, lifestyle, and dining, with a connection to the as of yet to be opened Beijing Subway Lines 3 and 17, which will have an interchange station under the stadium.
While it isn’t officially open yet, Gongti played host to a special New Year’s gala put on by BRTV, which saw the return of Cui Jian to Gongti, who first played at the original Gongti way back in 1986.

Taking shape

See how the subway construction building looked like at Shimao Gongsan shopping and now being dismantled. The subway construction building in the north-east gongti corner remains. The subway construction building in gongti south-east comer is also gone, all for Line 17.

See left of the stadium the concert hall on gongti dong lu nearing completion.
Some areal views late 2022, a screenshot about the first concert in January and the gradual cleanup around the stadium.

Lights on!

Late last year the stadium has worked hard to finish the lights on the roof

The lights have been tested many times.

Gongti West, South and East

See the construction at two locations (footh path) in Gongti West road, one is for an electric substation, the other one I am not sure.

Also the two big buildings on Gongti South and the other ones at the corner of Gongti south-east corner – those are still a bit of a mystery as mentioned in earlier posts. The outside seems nearly completed but they all look pretty empty.