Rotary Club of Beijing in 2024

Low profile

With the Chinese legal framework for foreign NGO it has been till now impossible to register our clubs in China. We cautiously observe the Chinese regulations so our permitted activities are limited.
The Rotary Club of Beijing celebrated a milestone in history, a 100 years anniversary.in a magnificent event at the Kempinski Hotel Beijing, on Saturday April 20, 2024. See here for the details.
It has completely changed the work we operate. See as an example the 080819_bulletin of 19 August 2008, previously posted on our website with pictures. We had to stop all that.
Rotary China has however now a general homepage.

Change of guard

According to Rotary rules, all clubs have a new team starting on 1 July, for one year.
On 25 June 2024 during a dinner in the Capital Mansion Club we thanked the old team with president René and welcomed the new team with president Ralf.

On 2 July 2024 the new president Ralf hosted his first meeting.

At the occasion he showed the congratulatory letter from the RI president Stephanie Urchick for the 100 years of the club; it was admitted to the Rotary family on 30 August 1924.
It was also the day to celebrate the birthdays of the month.

Lunch 3 September 2024

Mr. Yves Nzeyimana, AG for District 9214 (Uganda and Tanzania) and from the RC Arusha Mount Meru visited our club during our lunch in Kempinski Hotel.

In his newsletter he gave a nice overview:

RC Beijing has been involved in several community projects among which “Gift of Life” (350 surgeries for children with Congenital Heart Disease); “The Library Project” (over 160 libraries to migrant schools); the Maple Women’s Psychological Counseling Center (hotline for women who need urgent assistance); China Literacy Project (assisting poor families); Morning Tears House in Zhengzhou; Sun’s Children Village; aiding schools for developmentally disabled children (the Minkang and Fortune Schools teach basic living skills to developmentally disabled children); providing 1250 new wheelchairs to needy people; a medical van to the Hebei Children’s hospital, in Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province; matriculation and fees for a student  in Henan University of Chinese Medicine, among others.

Lunch 10 September 2024

During our lunch in Kempinski Hotel we had as speaker Mr. Billy Gao.
Topic: “A Brief Introduction to Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards in the PRC”.

Billy is a lawyer with GAOPENG & PARTNER (Beijing office) and he is also an arbitrator in China. He has practiced Chinese law for over 15 years and his practice areas cover dispute resolution, M&A, international trade, and competition law.

Lunch 24 September 2024

During our lunch in Kempinski Hotel Fernando gave a talk: “Real Estate Development in UK and EU”.

Fernando de Zuniga, a Spanish architect spoke about his company, specialized in real estate development and investment projects in Poland, UK and Spain. He also spoke about his new project, a padel club in London. Fernando has moved to Beijing a year ago.
We had the visit of a delegation of several Rotary clubs in Germany, led by our former member Monica who is now with the RC of Berlin-Kurfürstendamm.

 

Rotary Club of Beijing celebration

100 years Rotary Club of Beijing

The report by Rtn Helen gives a nice overview of a Rotary Club of Beijing celebration.
The Rotary Club of Beijing celebrated a milestone in history, a 100 years anniversary. 200 people attended what proved to be a magnificent event at the Kempinski Hotel Beijing, on Saturday April 20, 2024.
It was a night to be remembered in so many ways. Rotarians, their families and friends were entertained with fine food, fine wine and fine music and from the photos taken on the evening, it is obvious that everyone thoroughly enjoyed what was laid on.
Beijing Rotarian President Rene Schmitt and his team left no stone unturned in ensuring everyone‘s expectations were met.

The dance floor was always the epicenter of the evening’s activities, with the choice of classical, live band and DJ music.
Prior to this, the Kempinski Hotel laid on a fine 4 course meal followed by the cutting of the 100 year celebratory cake.
And to cater for the collectors and art lovers, there was a host of objet d’art items donated by members and friends for both the silent auction and the raffle.
The proceeds of the evening reflected the generous nature of the guests and was donated to the Beijing Club’s chosen charity, funding Hypospadias Surgery for children.
It only remains to be said that the spirit of Rotary was found to be in every corner of the room on the night and it was a night to be remembered by all those that were fortunate enough to be present in celebrating the Beijing Club’s 100 year anniversary.

UWEE tables and support

Once again the UWEE Group (Union of Western and Eastern Education) supported the event, with two tables and entertainment.
We welcomed representatives from the embassies of Belgium, Luxembourg, Philippines, Moldova, Bahamas, Solomon Islands, South Pacific Islands, AIIB (Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank) along with other Chinese and foreign VIPs.
Jane from UWEE interviewed some of our guests.

UWEE also brought some special entertainment. The 9-year old twins (sons of the CEO of UWEE) played piano and Max, a primary school student, 11 years old, played the accordion.
They joined the impressive musical performances of the other musicians.
The evening was a real success, with speeches from Rene, our Club’s President,  the Hebei Children’s Hospital, our partner for the Gift of Life and hypospadias.
The raffle and silent auction brought a lot of excitement, many lucky winners!

An evening of pictures, mingling and history

The ballroom was filled with excitement, people going around, meeting old and new friends, taking pictures, and dancing.

And yes, the food was great and so was the wine – thanks to our sponsors!
The guests received a short introduction to the history of our club.

For the full history, see it here, “100 years Rotary Club of Beijing”.
It was a challenge to select the pictures to publish. Sorry for all the nice pics I could not post!

100 years Rotary Club of Beijing

Celebration

On 20 April 2024 we will celebrate 100 years Rotary Club of Beijing with a sumptuous dinner.
On August 30, 1924, Admiral Tsai Ting Kai, the then Head of Chinese Customs, was appointed the inaugural President of the Rotary Club of Beijing alongside 22 founding members.
Our Club was the 3rd Rotary Club in China following  Shanghai in 1919 and Tianjin in 1923.
Throughout the years the Rotary Club of Beijing has been renowned for its commitment to charitable projects, a mission we continue to champion with pride.

To mark 100 years Rotary Club of Beijing we are organizing a celebratory dinner on 20 April 2024 in the Ballroom of the Kempinski Hotel Beijing. The evening will feature a welcoming reception followed by a  5-course dinner with wines, great entertainment, dancing, raffle prizes and a Silent Auction.
If interested, contact me.

Revised history of 100 years Rotary Club of Beijing

I had already published an earlier version of the history of our club in this post.
As requested I made a new revised history article with the help of my unique and exhaustive collection of documents.

Here it is: 240220 RCBhistory

I had to omit a lot of details as not to make the document too long. Many names of contributors to the success of our club could not be mentioned.
It was also not possible to give an overview of the so many projects the club has carried out over the years. I only mention The Gift of Life. One of our present key projects is about hypospadias. See earlier posts about his very serious problem affecting some young boys.
In late 2023 some 120 surgeries were done.
If I find the time I could make a study only about the projects we did over past decades. Believe me. there are so many…

Dragobete in Beijing

Celebration of love

On 24 February 2024 I was invited to “The celebration of Love, Dragobete  in Beijing”, by the Romanian Cultural Institute of Beijing. So what’s Dragobete? Dragobete is a traditional Romanian holiday celebrated on February 24. Dragobete was the son of Baba Dochia, which stands for the main person in the myth related to spring arrival and the end of the harsh winter. Due to his endless kindness he was chosen – according to some sources, by Virgin Mary – to be the Guardian of Love. Read about it here.
In Romania, Dragobete is known as a day for lovers, rather like Valentine’s Day.

The event was in Jinshang, in the large event hall and was attended by a very large crowd, with also the Romanian ambassador.

Fashion show

We were treated with music and a fashion show done by a Rotarian Sorina Tulan of the RC Satu Mare – District 2241.
She organized the small fashion show with clothes designed and produced by her company, the ETNOGLAM collection by INEDIT (Satu Mare).
I attended the event with two other Beijing Rotarians and we did a banner exchange.
See here a short clip on VIMEO with two of the performers. )

Romania, an undervalued tourist destination

I had the chance to visit Romania in September 2011 with a delegation of China State Grid to visit potential wind farms. We did thousands of kilometers in the country through magnificent and scenic areas. We visited among other Danube Delta, Bran Castle (Dracula!), Peles Castle, Palace of Parliament and much more.

We also had a glimpse of the vibrant nightlife.
We saw Rotary signs but when we tried the meeting of RC Levant the room was … empty.

The magic of drones

Our monthly dinner meeting

During the Rotary Club of Beijing dinner on 27 February 2024 we could watch the magic of drones. Normally we have lunch meetings.
We welcomed Claire Han who works at EFYI, a global leader of intelligent industrial UAVs. With core technology in UAV intelligent control, swarm control system, EFYI offers products and system solutions in the field of UAV intelligent control system, drone formation show, intelligent UAV logistics, and UAV application system customization etc.

EFYI holds a World Record: “26 Min 19 Sec! UAVs Performance of EFYI Group Holds Guinness World Record”. A new record for the Longest Animation Performed by Unmanned Aerial Vehicles.
Claire gave us a drone demonstration show.
Robbin Bishoen is World UAV Federation Consultant (Netherlands)(Unmanned Aerial Vehicle).

Claire and later Robin gave us an interesting insight in the magic of drones. They organize those massive drone shows…

The drone show

See here on Vimeo a glimpse of the show. It was possible because it was indoors, any outside show needs all the necessary approvals.
It was a fun evening, well attended. We also welcomes a Rotarian from the Netherlands.
Food of Kempinski was nice as usual.