2010 Rotary Club Charity Bazaar

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

The Rotary Club of Beijing once more organized its annual Christmas Bazaar. This year it was held on 20 and 21 November in the Beijing Marriott Hotel Northeast, an excellent location due to the great contribution of the hotel’s management.
The Bazaar was a great success, thanks to so many helping hands. I was there on both days, the spirit was great with so many families and kids around. As expected, I spent lots of money to buy the goods on display.


Pictures speak for themselves. See here some I took.

Zhimei ink toner cartridges: a rip-off

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Looking for alternative supplies for my HP color laser printer, we found this Chinese Korean company that claims to manufacture excellent products. As it turns out, it’s plain rubbish. The 2 cartridges (one black, the other yellow), lasted like less than 3 weeks and some 200 copies printed. The printer is now dead as one cartridge has given up. We contacted their service – total indifference. I went to their website and posted a message in their to contact section. Tough luck, the website does not work and the server “had a problem”. I sent e-mail to the address indicated – no answer.
Some of the original HP cartridges are still working after thousands of prints. Should I say more?


The box for the Ref 3960 (Black)
So, don’t be fooled by their sales pitch and cheap price: “Better Quality, Competitive Price, Excellent Durability, Best Service” – all rubbish.
See here details of the company:
北京智美尔科技发展有限公司
Zhimei Seoul Beijing Technology Development Co., Ltd.
http://www.zmink.com/
智美环球（北京）国际贸易有限公司
地 址： 北京亦庄经济技术开发区BAD国际企业大道
电 话： 8610-6722-5233
加盟热线：4006-505-345
qq在线： 705566628
E-mail： mmmxk@163.com

Beijing: dogs in the kitchen

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

No no, we do not bring dogs to our kitchen to serve up as a hearty winter dish. Though I admit a couple of weeks ago a Chinese friend brought us a small box with “special food for men”. To our utter shock we discovered a series of small dog penises with balls still attached, ready for the wok. Valerie and me looked at it, disgusted, and insisted to make it disappear ASAP from the fridge. Thanks but no, I’ll take care of my manhood in another way.
Yesterday we had cute visitors in our kitchen: a whole gang of Pomeranian dogs, most around 4 months old. Chinese may eat dogs but others are just plain crazy of them as pets, treating them as kids.
The reason for the visit: a foreign friend wants to buy one to take back home to Europe. The dog seller introduced the oooohhhh so cute fluffy dolls, price (ranging from 3000 to close to 10,000 RMB). I liked the brownish ones, the seller said the color of one would later turn to red. They were the most active (and a bit naughty). We all found them so cute, unfortunately we cannot keep one ourselves, as my wife is a bit allergic to dogs and w have a too crazy life. The favorite one is the one on the scale. They are also called Loulou, Pompom.

More can be found about this breed on the following site, this is the updated site (my update 3 August 2020):

https://yourdogadvisor.com/pomeranian-muzzle/

Crazy Bad: humor from the U.S. Embassy

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

The past days in Beijing have seen horrendous air quality. The Beijing dinosaurs don’t comment on it, in other civilized cities schools would be closed plus other measures. Here, all continues. I saw people jogging in that toxic smog but as they were Chinese it does not matter, according to local doctors only foreigners with their fragile lungs are being impacted. Chinese spit it all out on the spot with a big roar. No problems for them they say.
Authorities are “not able to explain”. You don’t need too, it’s simple – no wind, traffic jams caused by millions of uncivilized morons who all think they own the road and the winter heating being switched on. And no acid rain to clear it up.

With all our misery BeijingAir posted Crazy Bad, Beyond Index, Hazardous as the variations. At least they made me laugh and I quickly switched on my air purifier.

Government Procurement Agreement and China

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

I wrote the following paper that was widely circulated in September to the EU (Brussels & Beijing), Amcham and other interested parties.
Since then I received an exhaustive reply from the EU Delegation in Brussels (confidential). In short it says Brussels is aware about our concerns.
Are discussions around GPA missing the real issue?
28 August 2010.
by Gilbert Van Kerckhove
Gilbert is chairman of the Public Procurement Working Group of the EUCCC (European Chamber). The views expressed here are his own but have been submitted to th EUCCC.
Good news?
On 17 August 2010 China added 15 government departments under the State Council’s ministries into its latest offer to join the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA) of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Chinese and foreign experts point out that SOEs (state-owned enterprises) are not included.
This seems to indicate some misunderstanding on the definition of “government projects” and “government procurement” in China. Some even claim there is no regulation in place for SOE to this effect.
The current negotiations for China to join the GPA could prove to be pointless unless the real stumble block is removed – the duality of the Government Procurement Law (GPL) and the China Bidding Law (CBL). To fight for GPA only might be the wrong battle.
To read the full article, download the pdf document:
100828GPAcomments.pdf