Helmut Gaisberger has lived in the Philippines for 23 ½ years. Sometimes he is Viennese, sometimes taga-Makati, but at least two or three days during the year, I swear he’s Chinese, 100 percent.

That’s when he assumes the personality of a mandarin, the Mandarin in the name of his hotel. Alas, Mr. Mandarin is leaving after spending the last 14 years there as its general manager, during which he invested the business with a character all its own. As a luxurious but friendly hotel that hosts sparkling events on a grand or intimate scale, the Mandarin Oriental Manila is very, very special to the Chinese-Filipino community because under Mr. Gaisberger it fully lived up to its name, at least two or three days of every year.

The first of those days would bridge the last hours of the old year with the first moments of the Chinese Lunar New Year, with Mr. Mandarin being the first to get into the spirit of the event by greeting his guests in the proper costume, mustache, makeup and all. No. 2 activity would come around September/October, depending on the passage of the moon, for the Mid-Autumn Festival, when, after the mischievous month of hungry ghosts, Chinese all over the world take time to share their mooncakes with friends in the light of the most brilliant, full-faced moon.

With music and songs to the moon goddess, the festival picks up with a dice game which families play long into the wee hours – what a waste to sleep early when the moon is so glorious! – and reward lucky members with mooncakes of varying sizes. This year, the dice will be rolled on Oct. 3, when Mr. Gaisberger will be in Europe for his first big vacation away from work.

Alone among all the gentlemen who have ruled our most beautiful hotels, Mr. Mandarin has left a legacy --one not merely a commercial or professional success but that happened so subtly and with such seamless refinement, it is flawless like an imperial silk scroll.

As the Chinese say, Mr. Gaisberger, “The fragrance of the flower remains on the hand that gives it away.”