Rotary Beijing in Summer part 1

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

27 July 2021

See here Rotary Beijing in Summer part 1: A very relaxed dinner in Schindlers Tankstelle Sanlitun with a special Country Western performance once more by Kevin and Brian (Bag of Bears Band!). Most of the songs are my favorite, mostly from ‘70s and ‘80s. I had the mushroom soup and the BBQ ribs, all great!

No speaker, simply enjoying the music and fellowship.

Rotaract events

Small get together meeting with Trefyn the new President of Rotaract for 21-22, on 14 July in The Local and then on 26 July I gave a talk in the Yard House (SOHO Sanlitun).

And yes some volunteering again!
On 30 July 2021 Rotaractors joined MCF (Migrant Children Foundation) to go to Beijing Huiling to make some DIY dog puppets. Beijing Huiling is a place for children and young adults with learning and intellectual disabilities. With the 15 young adults at Beijing Huiling, Rotaract and MCF constructed dog puppets. Some of the young adults were even able to say the names of the body parts of the dog puppets in English. Many of the young adults needed help putting the puppets together. When everyone had finished making their puppet everyone gathered to take a picture.

See the happy smiles!
And another career talk on 9 August by Didier, our president of the Rotary Club of Beijing.

I followed by ZOOM.

10 August 2021

Another successful dinner in Schindler Tankstelle, this time with an inspiring speaker:
Josh Dominick – Topic: “Krankin’ through China: Adaptive Sports in the Middle Kingdom”

“Krankin’ through China” is a team of individuals who promote adaptive supports and inclusive activities in Greater China. Their goals are to raise social awareness, accessibility mindset, and improve health through motion by all people. Josh is from New Mexico, Florida, and New York and has lived in China since 2005. He shared with the audience his passion for outdoor sports, a passion since he was a child. Adaptive sports, Josh explained, started after WWII when injured veterans returned home. Adaptations were made so that those sports could suit the veterans to allow them to participate and do sports. Adaptive sports also allow those veterans with disabilities to integrate back into society. Adaptive sports like surfing, kayaking, cycling, or swimming are especially good because nobody can see at first glance that a person is disabled. Josh’s interest in adaptive sports started when he saw a disabled person couldn’t get to an elevator because of a crowd around it. He felt there was a need for awareness to help both normal people and people with disabilities to get along. Josh saw this as a good way to “give back” to the community. So Krankin’ through China was born.

Krankin’ Through China has both members and volunteers. They do everything together to cement a cooperative community, and to encourage leadership by everyone.

Old China Hands 3 September lunch

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Still holidays?

Our Old China Hands 3 September lunch saw again 27 attendants, below our usual of mid-30s. People on a trip, busy and even outside of China. The damned quarantine does not help attendance either. Of our member list, just above 100, we have 20 people outside of China, many unsure when they can be back. As I always warn, the list was again cleaned up a little, removing the silent members.

This time happy to see a VIP guest, our Belgian ambassador. Other special guests, Teddy and Eddy, were carried by Kevin, but they skipped the lunch.

Next lunch

As 1 October is the first Friday, rather inconvenient, we decided to have the lunch on Friday 8 October. Hopefully the virus stays away and we can plan without last minute hiccup…

Old China Hands 6 August lunch

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

A smaller group

Our Old China Hands 6 August lunch saw a bit less attendants, 27, still not too bad as it is right in the middle of the summer period, and midst a scare with new COVID-19 cases in Beijing and China. Two of our members are currently in a lockdown in their Wangjing compound. For 21 days, not funny and I think overdone by the authorities.
Quite a number are also away from Beijing.

Sadly it seems one of our most regular members, Terry, might not get his visa renewed. One more possible victim of the foreigners=disposable policies.
Thanks to Edwin I even have a pic of myself for once.
The most popular dish was the Belgian fricandeau dish! In English often called meat bread, meat loaf.Our next lunch, hopefully, is on Friday 3 September. We hope that by then the virus scare is toned down.

Old China Hands Lunch 1 June 2018 in Morel’s Restaurant

One of the unlucky lockedup at home is Greg who had made some interesting videos of our 5th anniversary. See the earlier post! I put them together and you can watch them on YouTube, yeah you need your backdoor.
See https://youtu.be/IvXaq8lIkkw

Thanks again Greg!

Wood Garden House in Beijing

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

A colorful new venue

Wood Garden House in Beijing or as it says “Wood Forest Garden Restaurant” is in Sanlitun, Courtyard 4, Gongti Beilu east of Hotel InterContinental Beijing Sanlitun.
Not much about it on Google but it is on Dianping and mentioned by Thebeijinger:

“A spacious eatery with two floors and a theme that borders on jungle-like, serving Spanish and Latin-style food. There’s also a large stage that hosts alternating performances of DJs and live music.
The menu is full of Instagram-worthy photos of salads, power bowls, soups, and entrées including the herbal salad with hot spring egg, chestnut pumpkin and creamy mushroom soups, pasta with shrimp and asparagus, chicken quesadilla, tacos, a Spanish seafood paella, and more.”

Location is of the former Salsa Caribe

Located behind the Pacific Century Plaza at Changhong Qiao east of Sanlitun, this was Beijing’s best place to go for Latin music lovers and salsa aficionados, featuring a large dance floor, high-tech DJ booth, and house Latin band – a raucous blend of sweat, sin and extremely tight pants. Sadly gone.

The place is now attracting many young Chinese to make tons of selfies. Food is reasonable.  Decoration is indeed colorful and “different”.

Rotary lunch 20 July 2021

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

I quit

We had our Rotary lunch 20 July 2021 in Kempinski, this time not anymore as Sergeant-at-Arms as I quit for “obvious personal reasons”. Well I can finally enjoy the food, the company and listen to the speaker!

Speaker was Sean McLeod, consular officer in US Embassy in Beijing. Topic: “ “How I Became a Foreign Service Officer”.
He told his story on how he become a diplomat after a diverse career, with posts in Indonesia, among among others. He was deeply involved with the evacuation flights from Wuhan last year.

Meeting Highlight as in the Newsletter

Sean McLeod is a consular officer from the US Embassy in Beijing. In this captivating talk, Sean described the trajectory of his career and highlighted the reasons why he decided to quit the private sector to serve his country. It all started with medicine. Sean first studied to become a doctor, but finding it not what he wanted, he made a big jump to computer programing and moved to Japan to live overseas for the first time. Finding it not fulfilling still, he went on to study for an MBA and later became a management consultant for IBM for 15 years. While as many people would have just settled down at what they had at this stage in life, Sean was not satisfied. Deciding to join the foreign service, he then took the foreign service examination and after successfully passing it, took the foreign service training on teamwork and how to achieve consensus on issues while representing US interests abroad. Sean’s current tour is in the consular section at the US Embassy in Beijing.