2010 Oct 21 Eat Well, Do Good: Chi Fan for Charity
We all enjoy having dinner with old friends and look forward to making new ones. It’s even more enjoyable when that dinner is delicious, and there are a few glasses of wine involved. The best however, is when you can do all this AND help out worthwhile causes in the meantime.
The Second Annual Chi Fan for Charity event will be held November 6. The format is simple – diners can buy a seat for a dinner at a well-known Beijing restaurant, and the table will be hosted by a Beijing personality. As the tables are donated by participating restaurants, all proceeds from this event are going to charity. Last year, this event raised RMB 100,000 for The Dandelion School.
This year, three charities will benefit from all this feasting and merriment. The Dandelion School, which provides education for the children of low-income migrant workers; Prevention Through Education, which promotes HIV/AIDS awareness; and Rural Women, which works on education projects for rural Chinese women.
Some of the best and most popular restaurants in Beijing have donated tables, and some of the city’s more interesting people have offered to host. For instance, CCTV presenter and UNAIDS Goodwill Ambassador James Chau is hosting at Jaan, art critic Karen Smith and photographer H.S. Liu are hosting at Sureno, journalist Gady Epstein is hosting at Duck de Chine, and restaurateur Alan Wong is hosting at Capital M.
There are currently 32 restaurants participating (see list below), and the price for a seat ranges from RMB 500 (Scarlett, Carmen) to RMB 1000 (Maison Boulud, Capital M). If you’d like to participate, but aren’t hungry, there is an after-party at Hatsune (RMB 150, or RMB 180 at the door). But hurry, many tables are selling out – act fast if you want the chance to do some good while doing nothing more than eating a great meal in fantastic company. Go to their website chifanforcharity.org to register.
- Bei
- Black Sesame Kitchen
- Café Sambal
- Capital M
- Carmen
- Chef Too
- Courtyard
- CRU
- Duck de Chine
- Fuel
- Grange
- Hatsune
- Hercules
- Jaan
- Kagen
- Kagen Teppanyaki
- Karaiya
- Lan
- Maison Boulud
- Modo
- Nola
- Oden
- Paper
- Red Capital Club
- Ristorante Sadler
- Room
- Scarlett
- Sureno
- Taverna
- Tavola
- Toro Bar
- Vasco's
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Last Chance to Buy Chi Fan for Charity Tickets!
Foodies and do-gooders unite – tonight’s the night you’ve all been waiting for. The third annual Chi Fan for Charity dinner will kick off citywide at 7.30pm, with the Hatsune after-party to follow at 10pm.
As expected, there is only a limited quantity of tickets left for both events. Just two days ago there were twice as many, so the few that are left will also probably be snatched up fast:
Chi Fan With Alan Wong, Kristen Lum and Stacey Lee Mitchell
The event on everyone’s lips still has seats left for purchase, though perhaps not for long. Chi Fan for Charity 2011 held its press party last night at the Westin Chaoyang’s Touch Bar to bring together the restaurateurs, media, table hosts and 2011 beneficiaries. They noted that they were not far from reaching their target goal of RMB 300,000, and that there remains a range of prices (from RMB 500 to 1000) and cuisines (from Spanish tapas at Carmen to Indian at Punjabi) to choose from.
If you’re still on the fence, we’ll let the CFFC table hosts and organizers do the talking. (See our earlier post for founder Michael Crain’s responses.)
St. George’s Day Dinner: Tickets on Sale Now!
It’s time to put on that fancy suit, laugh loud and dig deep for a good cause. The St. George’s Day Dinner is hitting the Beijing scene on April 28 at The Westin Beijing Chaoyang. This year, the proceeds will go towards Care for Children (an English charity dedicated to finding foster homes for orphaned children) as well as Little Flower (an independently funded hospice which offers long-term intensive care and medical treatment to sick and chronically ill Chinese children). We asked co-founder Martin Budzinski to clarify who exactly is St. George and why dinners are sometimes better than balls.
Man Chops Off 9 Inches for Charity
A man who hadn’t gotten a proper haircut in over ten years was coerced to do so last month at TATA Salon.
What would you do if your office (in this case, ThoughtWorks Software Technologies) ganged up on you, raising over RMB 15,000 for a child-in-need on the terms that you chop off those long locks? This guy, Vincent Xu, cracked under the pressure and handed himself over to TATA Salon stylist Scarlet's scissor-ready hands.
Chi Fan for Charity Tickets on Sale Now, Says Michael Crain
Now in its third year, Chi Fan for Charity (CFFC) has become one of the most highly anticipated events of the year. We have explained the concept in years past (see here), so we won’t go into too much detail again, but basically 2011 will see 32 of Beijing’s finest restaurants – the highest number yet! – donating tables. (Shanghai is getting its first taste of Chi Fan for Charity too on October 29.) Per seat prices range from RMB 500 to RMB 1,500.
