Memories of China

Rotary Club of Beijing memories

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Cleaning up my paper mountain

As many friends know, I have this annoying statement since a few years that I am trying to clean up the mountain of files in my office. Annoying because I always mention it but failed to make any progress. But I am discovering a lot like Rotary Club of Beijing memories, among many other. It seems like a huge jigsaw puzzle as papers are all mixed up, sometimes with no date stamp. But yes I am making progress and my tricycle recycling friend has more waste paper to collect.
But sometimes I am left puzzled about those hazy memories.

A gold medalist

I stumbled on this small newspaper clipping:

I think the small article is from China Daily. I found the longer version here:
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/olympics/2008-08/18/content_6945218.htm

I had nearly forgotten about it. I found back the old post on my website, see here the updated version:
Sergey Bubka, the IOC and Beijing Rotary Club, https://www.beijing1980.com/2013/08/20/sergey-bubka-the-ioc-and-beijing-rotary-club/

Few of our present members ever heard about Sun Children Village… One of the projects we supported. We even had a Rotary Villa there…

GSE 2008

GSE is “Group Study Exchange”. We did that in 2008 when we sent a Chinese team to New Zealand and we then received their team in Shanghai and Beijing. It was a difficult and complicated organization with our Kiwi friends staying all over the city in different locations and changing then from one family to the other. One, Jo, stayed with me and I found back her note, see the pic. I had also organized for her a meeting with one of the most important pharmaceutical companies involved in diabetes medicine; Ms. Joana Young BSc, PG Dip SCi was doing her PhD – Clinical Scientist, Lipid and Diabetes Research Group, Christchurch Hospital.

We had a very varied and full program for the group, but also filled with fun: I took them to a big lesbian evening where we had a great night. To say farewell to our New Zealand GSE team we organized a dinner on Friday 25 April 2008 in Restaurant Sahara (long gone, close to Salsa Caribe, also gone). We had a large VIP room with our own buffet of Middle East cuisine plus belly dancing in our room.

See some of the many pics (never published). One is during our Rotary lunch with the whole team presented; one in Pipe Cafe, long gone and razed, gongti nan lu, that time the biggest lesbian bar where I had privileged access; one in Sahara Restaurant.
Overall it was a big success but it also proved to be too much work for the Club.

Little Leopard went to space

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

VHS tape

As I mentioned the VHS tape, there was another section at the end: Little Leopard went to space. As it is on that 1984 tape I assume it came on TV that year. Strangely enough when I researched the story, it was apparently only “known” in 2018. Weird!
See the SCMP article:

‘China’s secret 1960s mission to send two dogs into space”
25 February 2018
Academy reveals how it selected the animals and strapped them into tiny, windowless capsules mounted on rockets for a journey they somehow survived
Stephen Chen in Beijing
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2134494/chinas-secret-1960s-mission-send-two-dogs-space

It is Little Leopard

As maybe many cannot reach the article, see a PDF of an edited version. Read the original for all details.

180225 dogsinspace

Comparing the screenshots and the pictures, it is clearly Little Leopard and not Shan Shan.

See the screenshots, with the brave dog being prepared for launch, placed in the rocket and welcomed back on earth. The launch was apparently on Friday 15 July 1966, on a secret military base in Guangde county, Anhui province.

1 October 1984 Military Parade

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Gilbert in Beijing

I witnessed the 1 October 1984 Military Parade for the 35th anniversary of PRC, the first in 24 years. After 1984: 1999 (50th anniversary); 2009 (60th anniversary – with me!); 2019 (70th anniversary).
That time I was working and living in the West Wing of Beijing Hotel, with my office in suite 5087.
The hotel had asked us to leave a few days ahead,  as on the day of the parade we could not leave, we could not open a window nor stand “too close” to it.
I decided to stay. It was a unique experience. Armed with my camera I stayed on a chair to look over the balcony at Chang’an Avenue below. Security was all over the parking lot, armed with binoculars and scanning the windows. As expected, they saw me and soon got a visit to “behave”. I didn’t.

Parade and fireworks

In the evening I was able to see the fireworks on Tiananmen from my balcony of my bedroom (5109), that had a great view on the Forbidden City and Tiananmen. That room and balcony no longer exist as a new hotel was built next to the West Wing. As far as I can reconstruct, I then went out to Tiananmen and shot more pictures there.

Ah I miss those times. Tiananmen had zero barriers, you could walk over there any time of day and night. I even remember I rode my Vespa on that square! (yeah I had an embassy plate…).
The pictures of the fireworks are great, already at that time China was a master in doing it. No need for fake stuff on TV screen (like for the Olympics fireworks…). It was all real.

VHS tape

I recovered the VHS tape with the full coverage of the 1 October 1984 Military Parade. The quality is poor, I actually assume it is a copy of the original VHS tape done by a friend, see some screenshots. Mind you that was some 35 years ago… different technology today!
Interestingly the images do not have any CCTV or BTV logos! I was wondering, is the tape that bad or was there really such a horrible pollution?

Yes, pollution was terrible that day. At that time nobody paid attention to something called AQI as we never heard about it. I guess AQI was way above 500.

The pictures

The proof was with the pictures I took that day, see the scans, all enhanced as much as possible. It’s a thick haze. Most of the time it had a sulphur smell (and color). I still have tons of old pics to scan, and to find back the negatives.

Pretty interesting to see those images of 1984, the people, the trucks, the soldiers, the floats, the TV presenters. On 1 October 2009 I was myself in the parade, on a float. Our daughter was running besides it with other young people. Somehow things change little, somehow things change a lot.

Madam Chen Muhua

I saw Madam Chen Muhua in the movie (she is not listed below). She was a remarkable person and I had a lot of respect for her. I also met her at one point, I forgot when. But she did visit the company in Charleroi I was representing in China: ACEC. Another great lady I met a few times in person was Vice President Wu Yi. Sadly, I don’t see ladies like that today in the government.

Chen Muhua, Vice Premier – State Councilor. She also served as Minister of Foreign Economic Relations and Trade. The veteran Communist Party of China revolutionary, the second female vice-premier, held several other key posts including state councillor, Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress vice-chairwoman and All-China Women’s Federation president. In 1985, she became the People’s Bank of China governor and was credited by some as a pioneer of China’s financial reform.

The leaders

1984 leaders present – Government top:
President Li Xiannian
Paramount leader Deng Xiaoping
Premier Zhao Ziyang

Parade – Leaders in attendance
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/35th_anniversary_of_the_People%27s_Republic_of_China

  • Hu Yaobang (General Secretary)
  • Li Xiannian (President of the PRC)
  • Deng Xiaoping (CMC chairman and Conference chairman)
  • Zhao Ziyang (Premier, official master of ceremonies)
  • Other Politburo Standing Committee members and Politburo members
  • Deng Yingchao (widow of Zhou Enlai)
  • Li Ximing (Party Committee Secretary of Beijing)
  • Chen Yun, First Secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection
  • Peng Zhen, Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress
  • Deng Yingchao, Chairwoman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference
  • Ulanhu, Vice President of the PRC
  • Xu Xiangqian, the 4th Minister of National Defense
  • Nie Rongzhen, the first and only Commander-in-Chief of the PLA
  • Prince Norodom Sihanouk (see the pic)
  • Son Sann, 22nd Prime Minister of Cambodia
  • Khieu Samphan, Chairman of the State Presidium of Democratic Kampuchea
  • Hoàng Văn Hoan, former Vietnamese Ambassador

Watch (with comments in Cantonese) the parade (Youtube, needs VPN):

 

Sergey Bubka, the IOC and Beijing Rotary Club

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

An Olympic Gold Medalist

As reported in our RCB Bulletin dated 19 August 2008, it was announced during the weekly lunch that on 17 August 2008, former Olympic Pole Vaulting Gold Medal winner Sergey Bubka and a number of Rotarians visited Sun Children’s Village. Sergey’s second visit to the Village of this year drew media attention to the program, resulting in stories in the local press and China Daily. Sun Village was created in 1996 by Zhang Shuqin.
See here the pictures taken during the visit.

The original Bulletin and pictures were posted on the old website, later all trashed. I found back the original Bulletin: 080819_bulletin

In our auction list for the 2009 Rotary Ball, item 10 said:
10. T-shirt signed by Sergey Bubka, voted the world’s best athlete

More about Sergey Bubka

The interesting news is that Bubka is one of the contenders to be the next IOC President, to succeed Jacques Rogge.
See the article: “In I.O.C., New Obstacles for an Expert at Clearing Them”, NYT 14 August 2013 (updated link):
https://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/15/sports/olympics/15iht-bubka15.html

His name is also spelled Sergei Bubka:
Wikipedia:
Serhiy Nazarovych Bubka (Sergey Nazarovich Bubka; born 4 December 1963) is a retired Ukrainian pole vaulter. He represented the Soviet Union until its dissolution in 1991, was repeatedly voted the world’s best athlete, and in 2012 was one of 24 athletes inducted as inaugural members of the International Association of Athletics Federations Hall of Fame.
Bubka won six consecutive IAAF World Championships, an Olympics gold and broke the world record for men’s pole vaulting 35 times (17 outdoor and 18 indoor records). He was the first to clear 6.0 m and the only (as of July 2013) to clear 6.10 m.
He holds the current outdoor world record of 6.14 m, set on 31 July 1994 in Sestriere, Italy and the current indoor world record of 6.15 m, set on 21 February 1993 in Donetsk, Ukraine.

This post was updated on 18 June 2021.