People find me and send their links. Got this one, a blog “with insights, comments and ramblings about the ethnic home furnishings industries, particularly Chinese antique & reproduction furniture. From the folks at antique-chinese-furniture.com”
link: http://www.acf-china.com/blog/
The company behind it: ACF China Co. (stands for Antique Chinese Furniture).
The design of the blog looks cool and gives me some ideas… It also uses WordPress. The articles are not detailed in content but there are many interesting links for people seriously interested in Chinese antiques, restoration, curios, repairing it all, etc.
So, if one is interested, just keep in touch with their blog and submit your comments.
Another interesting operation in Beijing is Van Thiel & Co. Call them, the big repair center for that kind of stuff, in Beijing. Bencham organized a visit to their facilities, I missed it unfortunately. Maybe I should go there to repair some of my damaged antiques.
I found it interesting to hear from Rudy van Thiel Jr. they had no problems to find good craftsmen to do the delicate repair work.
The company is based in the United States with an office in the Netherlands. Consolidation warehouses are in Hungary, England and France.
The antiques are said to be authentic and range in age from the late 1700’s through the mid 1900’s.
They are sourced from France, England, the Mediterranean, Eastern Europe, Scandinavia, Indonesia, India and China. The operation in Beijing (roughly 5,000 sqm) is responsible for inspection, cleaning, restoration and consolidation of antiques from Asia & Europe.
For more information, visit their website: http://www.vanthielantiques.com/
Month: October 2007
Holland Week in Beijing
I attended the opening of the Holland Week in Chaoyang Park on Friday evening 28 September. Was great, very relaxed and I could indulge in Dutch cheese, jenever and especially the “Hollandse Maatjes” – they were de-li-ci-ous…
Holland lost in China? – say cheese – now, all together…
I just felt pity one could not buy the jenever, cheese or maatjes (to take home).
At the gate of Chaoyang Park they were still completing the field with 580 Chinese flags, to celebrate the coming 58th National Day (1 October).
For the full series of pictures, click the following link:
http://homepage.mac.com/bjprc/PhotoAlbum9.html
Preparing for the next Beijing Marathon
Well, after 5 bronchitis this year, lack of enthusiasm (hey, I gave up my cigars!), some new training experiments, I needed to pass “the” test: a final run of close to 30 Km.
Sure not in Beijing with the horrendous pollution.
We left on Sunday for Shunyi, a district north of the airport and headed for a small farmer’s village in the triangle of Shunyi, Pinggu and Miyun, close to Jiao Zhuanghu. The mountains were very close and terrain was hilly.
On 1 October I woke up in the farmer’s house and it was still raining. After several eggs and the necessary cups of coffee I started at 8:30 in a drizzle; later it stopped and ran without sun. Great air.
starting with a drizzle – Valerie giving moral support – in the resort
I had a whole team following and guiding me through the countryside, the Chinese friend who owns the house, Sun and Valerie. Great support so I could dump one by one the extra clothes and the empty bottles.
We went through a resort called something like “An Li Long Biological Farm and Tourism Park”. Quite a nice place, huge, with tennis (flooded), fruit trees, hotel (with swimming pool), villas, hunting ground and even a tank. Management of course always Chinese style so not even a brochure or description. What a waste of resources… We might go back there to run in the future, and to enjoy the air.
I still don’t know how I managed but I finished a run of 3 hrs 18 min, according to my pedometer I did 31 Km but according to the car I did nearly 34 Km. Average heart rate 127.
Most surprising, no major aches and I attended two weddings the same day, one at lunch (farmer wedding in Shunyi) and one in Morel’s Restaurant in the evening (Juha and Annie).
For the complete picture gallery of the run and resort, click this link:
http://homepage.mac.com/bjprc/PhotoAlbum8.html
Nanjie: no more on Gongti
Nanjie, shut up and drink, did not survive long on the former parking lot in front of the Workers Stadium.
At the end of September, only rubble. Nanjie moved somewhere close to South Sanlitun Bar Street, not clear exactly where from the poster on the ruins. Maybe close to the Bookworm?
What they are up to with the parking lot, who knows. They are digging a gigantic hole and trucks are queuing up to take away the soil. Looks like another big tower coming. Some optimists hope it will be an underground parking…
