One Belt One Road and culinary networking [Event Review]

Dragons Businessclub gathered at “Fellini”, a classy restaurant at one of the corners of the Markthal in Rotterdam. It was the perfect location for our event that we co-organized with the World Championship Chinese Cuisine (WCCC) to network and to enjoy delicious food.

Memorandum of Understanding between Dragons Businessclub, WCCC and VNC
This event marks an important milestone: the signing of two Memorandums of Understanding (MoU). The MoU’s confirm the collaboration and ongoing promotion between WCCC, Dragons Businessclub and Vereniging Nederland-China (VNC).

This ceremonial gesture is important because in September 2016, WCCC will be launching the World Championship for Chinese cuisine in Rotterdam. This championship has been called the Olympics of Chinese cuisine. It has already been organized 7 times and it takes place every 4 years. It is the first time that it is held in Europe. We are proud that the 8th time will be organized in the Netherlands.

A result from the collaboration between Dragons Businessclub and VNC the members of each organization can receive a discount of 15% on the entrance fees for the events.

Jack Wang (WCCC) and Atom Zhou (Dragons Businessclub) sign Memorandum of Understanding

One Belt One Road
The event’s theme talk was giving by Min Zhang from Rotterdam Partners. She started off by acknowledging that the One Belt One Road initiative might be unknown to the general public, but she emphasized on its importance for entrepreneurs and businesses alike. This initiative is like a new Silk Road, only this time it is actively supported by large infrastructural projects along the land and sea route from Central Asia to Europe. Min Zhang explained that the initiative aims to achieve the following three objectives:

Increase export;
Increase import; and
Increase science and technology exchange.

Bottlenecks are going to be resolved on many infrastructural levels, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is going to be promoted and greenfield projects is going to be supported.

Presentation One Belt One Road (OBOR)

Informal highlights of the evening
We also enjoyed a special guided tour that was arranged by the Markthal. We discovered bits and bytes of the building’s history and architecture. We could also tour some non-visitor’s areas, such as the underground logistic units for the 90+ stalls and booths of the market on the ground floor.

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Markthal Tour
During the event, we were served two delicious Italian meals! As I signed up for the meat menu, I could not speak of the fish and the vegetarian menu. Up first was a crispy bacon, served on a platter of creamy sauce. The presentation was superb and the meat was tasty. Next was beef served on a bed of vegetables and polenta. The dish was very delicious; the meat was o so tender. I believe it is fried for a brief moment and then specially slow-baked for hours later.

Italian Cuisine

The evening ended with drinks, talks and of course everyone’s favorite: our Lucky Draw. Amongst the winners there was also a familiar winner. Somehow, Mr. Brandwijk has a 75% win rate at our events. We checked it many times; he is just one lucky man and reckon he deserves it fully. .

Dragons Lucky Draw winner

We hope to have inspired you at this event and would like to do so again for the upcoming events . Of course, we hope to welcome you again to our next event that will be co-organized with partners from the acrobatic show “Splendid” in The Hague “Zuiderstrand Theater”.

Pictures taken and article written by Cy Cheung
View all pictures here from the event taken by Yixiao Shi