Dinner with Henry's Friends

My trips to China always include meeting amazing people. Henry has unbelievable contacts and friends. (For more, see blog entries from my earlier trips).

Henry was among the first Chinese kids that got to go to college. I guess the government decided that college was a better method of education than some of the others they had tried.

The selection process must have been pretty rigorous, because every one of Henry's classmates that I have met is a huge success. I've probably met a dozen over my four trips to China. The other evening we had dinner with two more of Henry's classmates, both women.

Me, Cheng Lin, Ma Yanhong, Xu Ming (Henry's brother), Henry (Xu Hang)

Ma Yanhong is the first Chinese woman to win an individual Olympic gold medal. My wife and I saw her do it in 1984 in Pauley Pavilion at UCLA when we attended the individual gymnastics finals for the 1984 Olympics.

As you can see from her Wikipedia page, that was not her last success.

Cheng Lin is a singer. She's very well known in China, and has done very well judging by her house. Very nice. When I'm back in the US I'll try to edit this entry to tell you why she doesn't perform in China much anymore, but if I put it in this email it probably won't reach you.

Go to the Music tab on her site and listen to some of her stuff. Pretty good, I think. She's well connected. I looked at a pictorial biography of Quincy Jones while the classmates were catching up (in Chinese). It had a full page note from Quincy, personally signed.

Don't think I was left out of the conversation. Both of these women have excellent English (Cheng Lin's may well be better than mine). And you will never meet more gracious people.

We dined at "The Orchard". Set in an apple orchard with a pond, it could have been in Ojai (California). They serve California cuisine and do a pretty good job. California wine, too. That's pretty rare here. Cheaper wines are from Australia, better ones from France. I had my first glass of wine since leaving the US.

California prices, too, not that Henry's friends care. I had lamb chops because I thought the steaks were overpriced. The lamb was very tasty, but tough as nails. Just what I expected. Two of the guys did order steaks. Always about 1/2" thick (before cooking) and lots of bones. Sometimes I wonder what they do with the parts of the beef and chicken that does not have bones in it. Probably not fit for eating.

At dinner, I was thinking that Outback should open a branch or two in China. These guys all like a good steak and they are simply not available. Well, guess what I came across in my wanderings today in Beijing--an Outback. I didn't go in to see what the steaks look like, though.