A warm welcome follows in his house on the Kolderveense Bovenboer. “It’s cold inside, you better make sure you take off your coat. In any case, I’ll keep it on.” A lot of wood is burning in the fireplace. It is an old house, not very good in terms of insulation, he says. He points to the thick couch and a relaxing chair. “This seems like a nice place to sit.” He plops down on the couch full of rugs. “If you are cold, you should say so and we will sit closer to the fireplace.”
He starts talking enthusiastically. The courses, the Chinese language and Chinese history. It all comes out of his mouth at a fluid pace. Chinese names echo through the room. He spells it for every name that matters.
He is excited that 92 street names in the Netherlands are named after Marco Polo, but none are named after Rabban Bar Sauma. “It is not even certain that Marco Polo ever visited China. Rabban Bar Sauma was the first Chinese to visit the West in the 14th century. He made the long journey to attack Islam.”
Van den Bergh tells how Admiral Zheng He returned to China with a giraffe from Africa. “He went on voyages of discovery. The three-masted ship in which Columbus made his voyages was a goldfish compared to Zheng He’s 300-meter-long ship.” Guan Yin also passes by. He talks continuously, full of passion.