Old China Hands lunch 6 January

Lunch is back!

Due to the COVID-19 situation in December we had to cancel the monthly lunch. With the Old China Hands lunch 6 January 2023 we started again, entering our tenth year!
We first remembered our friend Hartmut Heine who suddenly left us on 4 December. Our friend Kent, now in the USA gave us a short speech by video call to remember Hartmut, followed by a moment of silence.

I personally knew Hartmut for some 40 years. I discovered these pictures of Hartmut attending my office party in my Beijing Hotel office on 22 November 1982.
With the virus tsunami in Beijing and with a number of members abroad for the holidays we had a modest crowd of 21.

Moldova wine

Our member Lydia surprised us bringing many wine bottles from Moldova and our special guest, the ambassador of the Republic of Moldova.

See the dishes I chose and one of the weirdflowers chosen by Susan “zombie flower”. Always something new!
Many happily tried the wines!
Thanks to Lydia whom I had met in a Moldova Wine Tasting on 25 October 2022.

Moldova Wine Tasting

Moldova-China Economic and Cultural Exchange Center

On 25 October 2022 we were invited by Max Yang and Lydia Long in the Center on Chang’An Avenue. They had organized a VIP wine tasting event to introduce the rich variety of wine from Moldova.
I had quite a bit of wine that day, a nice discovery.

I took some of the leftovers to Morel’s Restaurant to continue the tasting with Renaat.
See some of the wines we had the pleasure to explore.

Moldovan wine

Fossils of Vitis teutonica vine leaves near the Naslavcia village in the north of Moldova indicate that grapes grew here approximately 6 to 25 million years ago. The grape growing and wine-making in the area between the Nistru and Prut rivers, which began 4000–5000 years ago, had periods of rises and falls but has survived through all the changing social and economic conditions.
Moldova has a well-established wine industry. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moldovan_wine) It is the 11th largest European wine-producing country.

White varieties: Chardonnay, Sauvignon blanc, Aligoté, Pinot gris, Pinot blanc, Riesling, Traminer, Muscat, Silvaner, Müller-Thurgau, Rkatsiteli.
Red varieties: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Pinot noir, Malbec, Saperavi, Gamay.

See: “15 Fascinating Facts About Moldovan Wine That You Never Knew”.

Old China Hands lunch 8 November

Modest crowd

Our Old China Hands lunch 8 November saw a grand total of 25, due to COVID complications and other. It was somehow good to have a reduced crowd as CCTV4 was running around filming us and Morel’s Restaurant has a lack of staff.
Yeah CCTV4 is making (again) a documentary about me…

But food was great again. This time we saw pockets of French, German, Flemish and English speaking corners, making it pretty international…

Our Hutong Man

Once again Terry in the news. this time on BRTV (Beijing Radio and TV). who shows his Chinese skills and how he is part of the hutong community.

Link of the video clip is here.
Google translation (edited) from the introduction:
“Unexpected Beijing”  American Gao Tianrui, I am “Xichengyang Aunt”
BRTV Youth 21 October 2022
Gao Tianrui from the USA has lived in Beijing for 27 years. A few years ago, he set up his home in a hutong near Shichahai in Beijing, and developed a strong interest in the work of community volunteers. In 2017, he joined the volunteer team of “Aunt Xicheng” and became a member of the Ping An volunteers in Xicheng District, and became well-known. Wearing a red vest and a red armband he is regularly walking in the alleys of Shichahai, enjoying volunteering. His favorite idiom is “helping others.” For him, the Shichahai community is his home.

See previous posts here.

TCM explained 4.

Foot pads

In TCM explained 4. a focus on foot pads and brewing TCM special teas.
From a Chinese friend I received many boxes with foot pads and I do use sometimes, see pics.
I see many advertisements on media claiming foot pads can make you lose weight, remove toxins, and more. See one example on Amazon.

Do Detox Foot Pads Work?
The theory behind the pads is that when placed on the bottom of the feet, they absorb toxins, heavy metals, metabolic wastes, parasites, and even cellulite from your body as you sleep. By morning, the once white foot pads would appear darkened, which would supposedly signify that the pads had leached toxins from your body overnight.
Some companies selling the detox foot pads even claim these pads could treat a host of medical problems, including high blood pressure. They claim the pads could make your headaches, depression, and insomnia go away, and that they could even help you lose weight.
However there is no scientific data showing that detox foot masks have any true effect on the body.
So, detox foot pads are just a hoax.
And also explained in USA TODAY
“Cleansing foot pads do not remove toxins from your body, experts say – the foot is not a detoxifying organ.”

My teas

I weekly brew some teas, here one example. Ingredients: He Shou Wu, Luomozi (the fruits or the twigs) and pine needles.

What is Luomozi?
Metaplexis japonica, commonly known as rough potato, is a twining vine. Pale purple to white, star-shaped, 5-petaled flowers bloom from late June to August. Flowers are followed by elliptic seed pods which split open vertically when ripe to release numerous silky-haired seeds (reminiscent of milkweed) which are easily carried by wind to other locations.
The vine grows with unbelievable speed… as every year on my balcony. See the pics.
Parts used for medical purpose: whole plant, roots, fruits.
Earlier I brewed only the twigs, as pictured. This tea uses the fruits.

He Shou Wu (Fo-Ti) is the prepared tuberous root of Polygonum multiflorum, a plant that grows in the mountains of central and southern China.
It is a herbal remedy used to promote healthy aging and treat conditions like heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.
The plant sterols in it are called a “miracle cure” for prostate problems. It appears to absorb DHT at a rate no other plant sterol can compare with.
The top toxin is DHT or dihydrotestosterone. DHT is also known as androstanolone or stanolone,  an endogenous androgen sex steroid and hormone. DHT plays a beneficial role in the developing prostate but it can be detrimental in the adult prostate in that it causes pathologic prostate growth.
Benign prostatic hyperplasia is a condition in which the prostate grows and pushes against the urethra and the bladder blocking the flow of urine.
Before I used it in powder, now the roots directly.

Pine needle tea has a pleasant taste and smell. It is rich in vitamin C (5 times the concentration of vitamin C found in lemons) and can bring relief to conditions such as heart disease, varicose veins, skin complaints and fatigue.

How to brew? I use an electric water heater that has several operation settings, One is to brew TCM teas, taking several hours. Once done, I take out the herbs and keep the tea in several small bottles, in the fridge.

Beijing Workers Stadium story3

Gongti South and East

In Beijing Workers Stadium story3 a look at the less talked about developments in the Gongti area. Indeed TheBeijinger and China Daily have been showing some details of the Workers Stadium but little or nothing about the other constructions going on in the area. See earlier post.
Much more to come, stay tuned!
In the Workers Stadium East Road (gongti dong lu) a big rather strange building is taking shape. That is supposed to be the “China Philharmonic Orchestra Concert Hall and Rehearsal Facilities” according to some Chinese signs at the construction site. No details available…

In this design sketch, the concert hall is right on the left of the new stadium. The view shown is from the north-east corner of the gongti area.
In the same picture, in the upper left corner, barely visible, are 3 buildings, located at the south-east corner of gongti area. Most of those are on Workers Stadium South Road (gongti nan lu).
Those buildings are really a bit mysterious, nobody talks about it. On the construction entrance (gongti nanlu) they mention something like “Tennis, Swimming Pool and 9 other items including Museum renovation and Beijing Staff Sports Service Center”. The two buildings on that road are very big and empty inside, so I guess at least one is a swimming facility.

See the pictures taken since may 2021 until recently with the progress of those buildings. On gongti nan lu it all started with an enormous excavation pit, there must be a lot underground.
See the dates and the locations. They are now putting windows. I still have no idea about the huge steel beams sticking out.

Other constructions nobody talks about

Right in front of Morel’s Restaurant in the night of 31 May 2018 they were pumping mud into an improvised water basin. We guess it was related to the underground work for Subway line 3. The following day all was gone without a trace! Impressive!

What is going on in and around the Workers Gymnasium is also a mystery. See a nice recent shot from the gymnasium and the buildings being razed around it on the south-west corner of the gymnasium, very close to Julong Garden.
They might also break down the interior of the gymnasium, with many trucks taking away mountains of construction debris. Right now the mountain of debris are gone and the last trucks are picking up what can be recycled. But nothing to see outside of the gymnasium… so not sure.
The statues of the Stadium area are still at the gymnasium but are expected to be put back soon.
On Workers Stadium West Road (gongti xi lu, my street), also mystery construction on the sidewalk that started in July 2022. Soon in August steel structures came up. At least one of the 3 constructions spots would be an electric substation of China Grid for the area.
Also the new big gates of the Workers Stadium are rising up (north and west sides).