Exploring Encuentro replacing Red Rose

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Again a change

On 4 April 2021 I went exploring Encuentro replacing Red Rose. It’s the new restaurant on Beijing Gongti Bei Lu, Encuentro, basically South American food. Just in front of the North Gate of Worker’s Stadium, in the small alleay. Our friend Rtn Jose had suggested it, the place had just opened on the location of a former Muslim restaurant, then followed by another restaurant, Red Rose, American cuisine.

I tried the ensalada de tofu (nice), the ropa vieja cubana (very good) and the picarones peruanos (can be improved). Rather soft opening without a full a la carte menu.

The former Red Rose Restaurant

Beijing is not a good place to run a restaurant. Sky-high rents, unreasonable landlords and annoying government “inspections” to make life miserable – often only targeting foreign restaurants: reason why restaurants open, go bust, other open, restart the cycle. Chinese restaurants generally less bothered. Inspectors always find a new reason to mess: need other electric plugs (the safety ones have the wrong color), the gas pipes should be moved and painted in a different color, the trash cans are not OK (while a few hundred meters away trash litters the street with stinking trash. (un)Welcome to Beijing.

See a visit to the former Red Rose Restaurant with friends, July 2019. The place was actually very nice, food at first so-so, later improved a lot and I started liking it. A pretty ugly kind of bulldog was always around to check us out, in a very friendly way. I guess it closed, victim of the virus economy.

I fail to understand why new tenants always must break down everything and remodel. Like in this case, there was nothing wrong with the design. Screw the environment! (see my book Toxic Capitalism).

Rotary Beijing discussed mental health

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Kempinski Hotel 18 May 2021

Rotary Beijing discussed mental health during their lunch thanks to Enoch Li.
Enoch was our very interesting speaker on the topic of Mental Health, now gaining a lot of attention by Rotary International and the Chinese government. This is a much misunderstood subject. Enoch corrected the wrong understanding of mental issues, illustrated the growing awareness of this medical condition and explained how we can address it correctly.

Enoch is a former member of our Club. Some ten years ago she left as she was going through a personal tough time. Previously she was a successful expat with HSBC, in London, Paris, Tokyo, and Beijing. Originally holding a Master in Law, she furthered her studies in INSEAD and Institutes in the field of Social Systems, Play Therapy and Small Group Training. She has been featured on many international media and is a regular public speaker.
In her talk she looked back at her studies, her successful career and how she was suddenly overwhelmed with depression, as recorded in her book “Stress in the City”.

See here Enoch taking the floor in the British Chamber of Commerce in Beijing.
More about her work: http://bearapy.me/

Enoch Li: “Stress In The City”

I bought her book and I was very impressed.

See here my book review:
https://www.damulu.com/2019/06/20/stress-in-the-city/

Beijing Rotary in March

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Wine Tasting Party

Beside our regular meetings, Beijing Rotary in March had an exciting party in ROOTS on 23rd of March.
Cassidy, one of the only five Wine Masters in China gave us an introduction on new world versus old world wines.
To make the concept real he brought a Pinot Noir from New Zealand (cheaper and screw cork) and another one from France (more expensive and real cork) and explained the intricacies of each type of wine and wine processing; key aspects are acidity, transparency, alcohol content, body, hint of earth, hint of oak, hint of berries, tannin content and aroma.

Cassidy also gave a historical overview on how “Wine Masters” are selected and appointed worldwide and how they have to pass theoretical exams along with rigorous tasting tests.
We received two nice wine glasses marked I and II to taste (blindly) the two Pinot Noir wines and to give our opinion.

Good attendance, with members of the Rotary Club of Beijing and Rotary Club of Beijing East, along with visiting Rotarians and guests. It was a fantastic fellowship, a delicious dinner, high quality wine tasting. Zeyu Zhu, a cellist from the Juilliard School (New York famous school) entertained us with a nice classical music.

Kempinski 30 March 2021

Acting President Didier chaired the meeting and gave an update on the upcoming events of the club.
Our latest member was inducted, Kevin Gouldmann. He received his certificate and pin from Didier.

Kevin was also the speaker of the day, to tell us about his unusual profession as a “Klavierbaumeister” (master piano maker).
Kevin studied piano and music in USA but left for Germany when 21 because he felt he was not good enough to play piano. Instead of playing the piano he later chose the guitar instead.

What makes a good piano? Design, choice of materials and workmanship are the key factors. He learned the different aspects to achieve the right result, first as an apprentice in Berlin for over two years. He then moved to Hildesheim, for several years. Later he followed the complete Ludwigsburg Master Program as a master piano maker. He graduated successfully after a second tough exam.

He worked in a piano factory until he was recruited by a Danish company where he became owner and partner. Later he moved again to Germany and then to China. In China he is one of the only three master piano makers. He is still active with manufacturers in Europe and also did a stint in Abuja (Nigeria), where he lived colorful experiences.
He explained some of the key issues in making a good piano and also explained the different piano types.
He had to field many questions from the audience.

Gilbert let our visitor Sarah Wagner announce the publication of her book “Unleash Today”, that came out exactly on this day in all the major Amazon shops. We look forward for Sarah to give us a talk about her book that she wrote together with Kate Surala.

I already bought the Kindle version!

Belgium’s First Fingerprint e-ID abroad

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Gilbert as a test case

On 31 May 2021 I took part in the Belgium’s First Fingerprint e-ID abroad, in our Belgian Embassy in Beijing. With the time zones Beijing was a favorite location to try the new administrative procedure when it was launched worldwide, as the first in line. As I understand, not that simple as the data of the scans – picture, fingerprints, signature – must be uploaded to the system in Brussels and the whole process was not tested before.
See the official post:
Belgium’s First Fingerprint e-ID Abroad!
31 May 2021
https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/nScXc-jJAVJ4n3SBAzS8uw

If you have trouble opening the link, see here the PDF version: 210531 firstIDcard
I was gladly the test case. Overall it went very well, it was fun. The only hassle is to make the electronic signature, the machine is a nightmare as you don’t see what you are doing. I had to repeat more than a dozen times and settle for the less bad result.

See how the old ID card looked like, and the fingerprint process.
Next step is waiting for the new ID to arrive and to activate here the chip. In the past it could not be done in the embassy and I had to do it in Belgium during a visit.

My eID reader

My eID reader

I use the eID with this eID reader to have access to the retirement website in Brussels.

A European mess

There is still no European standard to have secure access to government or banking websites, accepted and used by the member states.
For ING Belgium I use a ING card reader. Every country has its own system, in Belgium it is called CSAM. In Belgium there are other options such as itsme.be.
CSAM: https://www.csam.be/en/egov-profile.html
About itsme: https://www.itsme.be/en/partners

“itsme” was approved in Belgium in January 2018 and the button itsme is visible on CSAM. ING Belgium also allows itsme. In December 2019 itsme was approved by the EU. However France imposes France Connect registration that cannot be used by people like me and does not follow EU standards. A real headache. It does not follow “eIDAS”.
eIDAS oversees electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions in the European Union’s internal market. It regulates electronic signatures, electronic transactions, involved bodies, and their embedding processes to provide a safe way for users to conduct business online like electronic funds transfer or transactions with public services.
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EIDAS.

Migas Mercado in CBD

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

A gorgeous view

Migas Mercado in CBD (Beijing) is a Spanish/ Mediterranean restaurant on the 7th Floor, North Zone, of China World Mall in the Beijing World Trade Center group of buildings.
The restaurant is one of several in the same building with a terrace that offers a great view of the new CBD area and the CCTV Tower.
Better keep the pictures of the area as in a very years it will change again dramatically and buildings such as the BTV Tower will be hidden by even more high-rises.
When we were there on a Saturday, 8 May 2021 we were told window seating, inside and outside, – demanded minimum consumption of 500 RMB per person. The next rows are 300 RMB minimum consumption, where we finally got a table. Most tables were already reserved.
See one of the many reviews: https://www.therooftopguide.com/rooftop-bars-in-beijing/migas.html

Nice food

I was there before and wanted to check the food again. We were not that in the blood sausages – Morel’s are better – but batatas bravas with chorizo, the salad and the mushroom paella, among other, were nice. With the many dishes ordered we reached the required 600 RMB easily. Service was reasonable while we were very early to get a table. A bit strange but we were told the minimum fee does not apply to afternoon tea…

The building China World Mall has a wide range of restaurants spread over several floors. I feel always a bit lost in that building, trying to find the right floors and the best entry/exit. A bit of a complicated labyrinth, worse if you try to come through the maze of underground levels walking from the other connected WTC buildings.