A Mexican Meal & Plans for Many More in Beijing

Conversation during dinner in a Mexican restaurant in Beijing with the Executive Chef of the Canadian Embassy is reduced to shouting over the full volume of an authentic Mexican band in sombreros and tight trousers or talking flat out between songs. The food’s OK – if you like Mexican food, but we are trying to talk factually about the plethora of new restaurants racing to open before the Olympics and particularly of his – a group of three in a complex to be built by the name of Project H20.
Billy Kawaja is a busy man. He already runs the menu of a weekend brunch place Café St Laurent below the popular Alfa nightclub and a catering business. Last week he cooked dinner at the New Zealand Embassy to celebrate the visit of Prime Minister, Helen Clarke and historic signing of a Free Trade Agreement with China.
He has several opening and closing parties lined up for the Olympics, on top of the new restaurants. Last week he cancelled our dinner arrangement at the eleventh hour due to an emergency and as I arrived tonight, was pouring over plans with his assistant. Struggling above the noise, I ask if he has time for any private life.
“This is my life, “ he replies, “ You wouldn’t do this in any other city and maybe this is the only time you’d do it here.”
Beijing is overflowing with people seizing the day in similar way. I have seen over two massive restaurant & leisure complexes struggling to meet the deadline of the Olympics. Handel Lee, the Chinese American barrister who transformed Shanghai with his luxury Western Three of the Bund complex is converting the old American Embassy on the edge of Tiananmen Square into the Legation Quarter - a similar marvel to be, currently seething with swarms of labourers, broken bricks and bare earth.
Swire Hotels are nearing completion of The Opposite Room in the Sanlitun district, with entrepreneurial Australian restaurateur David Laris as a consultant on the bars. Michelle Gaurnaut of the M group in Shanghai and Hong Kong has elected to wait to open her Beijing establishment after the Olympics.
Yesterday I visited The Emperor – a top level Chinese hotel of 55 rooms with a view of The Forbidden City, which was officially opening tonight. The downstairs restaurant Shi was riddled with noise and the smell of varnish, so I repaired to the rooftop bar and gazed at the treetops and skyline of The City – breathing in the old and new. It will be fascinating to return to Beijing in three months’ time – let alone a year.

Beijing is ablaze with the visit of the Australian Prime Minister

Beijing is ablaze with the visit of new Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who delivers speeches in perfect Mandarin, punctuated with Chinese proverbs… and his wife Therese Rein, so it wasn’t altogether surprising that I should run into her at the influential Australian Red Gate gallery yesterday as I was coming in and she was going out.
We smiled broadly at each other – mine motivated by pure pleasure and recognition, hers probably because she’s that kind of person. We haven’t met – although I’m from Australia –it was just one of those memorable moments that happen when you see fellow countrymen away from home.

The gallery, incidentally is a special treat. Located in a gatehouse of the ancient city wall, it’s almost a complete experience before you’ve seen the art. Up a myriad of steps and restored ramparts, you are thrust into a scenario from the mysteries of the Ming and Sung era past.

Inside the gallery, the setting exhibits the exact contrasts that constitute contemporary Beijing – the original architecture and exposed walls, set with modern art. The current artist represented in the main room is Wei Qingji whose work rests on the juxtaposition of influences on Beijingingers – the confusion of the timeworn old of the Mao regime and furious Westernization of the current day. It’s a perfect key to the culture..

Furthering the Australian emphasis of the day, the PR Director of my hotel (the new Ritz Carlton, opened in December 2007), Kaarin Lindsay from Melbourne, Australia, was yesterday awarded the company PR Director of the Year for Asia.
Not bad for a 33 year old, who only arrived here from Sydney a year ago and is competing with the other luminary chains spreading frantically across Asia. Her bright and breezy style, backed by a steely efficiency has made its mark at the Four Seasons, Sydney and previously Park Hyatt, Melbourne and Hyatt Coolum.

I’m just off to join her in the hotel’s Italian restaurant Barola for lunch. Ciao from China.