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When I went to Beijing, I was hoping to find people to sightsee and hang out with. When I left Beijing, I had made friends with the folks that live at the youth hostel where I stayed. Go figure. That's the beauty of staying at hostels, you never know who you may meet there. There are always people who want to hang out and go places. Hooray!
I arrived in Beijing on April 24th, a few days ahead of a couple of other Aston teachers that were planning to come up for the weekend. My co-worker Chandlee hooked me up with the Jade Hostel near Tian'ánmen Square, between the Forbidden City and Wanfujing -- the big famous shopping street in Beijing. Very convenient! Chandlee's friend G who was living at the hostel for a while met me the first day. He and some of the other "regulars" - what I called the students who are studying Chinese at local universities who happen to live at the hostel - were hanging out in the bar/lounge and information desk areas of the hostel. There was G and Kerry and Javi and Mark and Dave - all residents there.
I arrived in the afternoon, so I got settled in and then G and Dave and I went to dinner across town at a Mexican restaurant they wanted to try. I'm not big on Mexican food, but was happy to join them and check it out. You can get any kind of cuisine in Beijing, from Mexican to Greek to Italian to Thai - and they even have Subway fast food there too! I had yummy cheese quesadillas and mmmm fresh-made guacamole (I miss avocados). I enjoyed my meal until I had to pay an exorbitant amount for it. You eat Western food, you pay Western prices! That was my first "sticker shock" moment in Beijing. There would be others to follow. The next day I bought bread and peanut butter so that I could get by with peanut butter sandwiches for lunchtime - I knew I'd need to save some cash for dinner meals!
On Thursday, April 26th, I met up with a friend of a friend named Max for dinner. He went to college with my Boston co-worker Raj. Max and his girlfriend and I had Thai at Purple Haze near the Sanlitun District. Yummy pad thai! Another expensive meal but it was oh-so-good. We had a drink afterwards at a nearby dive bar. It reminded me of a college bar back home. The kind of place with cheap, strong drinks and dim lighting for ambience. Good times!
The weekend arrived as did my friends from Jinan. We had dinner at a great vegetarian restaurant down the street from the hostel. And then we began a string of late nights of drinking, dancing and debauchery. I do love the nightlife! On Friday, April 27th, it was me and Chris and Lara and Katherine. We hit the Sanlitun bar district, where the ex-pats hang out and get their drink on and their groove on. We did the same. Sanlitun is a couple of streets of bar after bar after restaurant after bar. We went to a couple of places on the street level for some cheaper drinks. Then upstairs to Bar Blu. I forgot I was in China for a night! Dancing, drinking, Western music (read: music I would hear at dance places in Boston), lots of Westerners and Chinese together, quality drinks (at a steep price of course). I could have been at a club in Boston just about! We hit the dance floor and danced the night away - literally. There was an upstairs/outdoor deck where you could get some air. Remember - you can smoke everywhere in China and they do smoke everywhere! So it was nice to have a fresh air getaway. Later in the night as the dance floor died down, we went to a different bar in the same building, this one was China Doll. More dancing, more drinking, good times all around! We saw Jimmy, another guy from the hostel, at Bar Blu, and he joined us at the next place too. I met this Spanish guy Oscar that joined our group as well. Time flew by and we finally left around 6:00 AM on Saturday morning. We left the bar and - what the ?!? - it was dawn outside! We were in the dark clubs for the whole night and we came out to daylight outside! Of course it was time for breakfast, so we hopped in taxis and went back to the hostel. The breakfast buffet opened at 7:00 AM so we waited for it to open and had a meal. Not a great meal, I'm used to a bit more non-meat options at a breakfast buffet, but it was nice to have something to eat before heading to bed for the ... day.
The next night was Saturday April 28th. Another night on the town - first dinner at a restaurant near the hostel, then back to Sanlitun with a bigger group of us: me, Anh, Chandlee, G, Chris, Dave, Lora, Katherine, Sam. We hit the street-level bars again for the cheap drinks, then up to Bar Blu for some dancing. Funny thing was, the bars weren't as busy as they were on Friday night. It turns out that "the scene" is bigger on Friday nights than on Saturday nights. There were still people out, but it wasn't the same as Friday had been. There was another American whom we had met on Friday night named Hisham. Hisham was out again on Saturday, he was leaving Bar Blu as we were arriving. He is from Worcester, Massachusetts, not far from Boston. I introduced him to Sam, the New Yorker in our crowd. I knew the sparks would fly, as there is a huge rivalry between Boston Red Sox fans and New York Yankees fans. They of course got into an argument about which team is better. I told them I missed that rivalry, so I had to bring the two sides together for a friendly argument. I was amused. They got along okay, but of course each thinks that his team is the best team! The group of us from the hostel stayed out a little longer. We had a good time, got our groove on and our drink on, tried a few other bars, but things were quieter on the street. We went back to the hostel around 2:00 or 3:00 - an early night in Beijing.
On Sunday, April 29th, we tried another district - the Houhei District. There are lots of fun bars and shops over there, near the hutongs and near a small lake. We - the usual gang at this point - had dinner at Hutong Pizza. Yummy! I had the most delicious pizza! Before dinner we went to the bar next door for drinks and a round of Crazy Eights. Dave and Katherine had never played the game before! So I taught them and then beat them at a round. After dinner we wandered around the neighborhood. It's touristy there so places are open late. We ended up at a bar called Shut Up Just Drink. Good times! We ran into a few other guys staying at the hostel - some pilots that work outside Beijing who come into Beijing once in a while. We stayed out socializing for a few hours and then headed back to the hostel to get some sleep.
On Monday, April 30th we decided to have a night in at the hostel. Time for a break... or so we thought. It turned out that G was able to get a train ticket to Vietnam for May 1st, so after several months at the hostel as the resident friend and tour guide, this was to be his last night in China. Chandlee and Dave bought some alcohol and what started as a small gathering to toast to G and wish him safe journey became the party of the night. All the regulars and a bunch of us newbies gathered around and sat and drank and chatted the night away. We were playing a drinking game called Kings for a while, so we went through lots of Tsingtao beer and eventually the tequila and vodka were gone as well. We were up until about 4:00 AM talking and laughing and having a great time. G was much loved and we sent him off in style!
After G's departure, I only had a couple of nights left before I headed back to Jinan. Dave and I went to a restaurant down the street from the hostel, which was really good. We had some great cauliflower and garlic dish, along with some other tasty dishes and chrysanthemum tea. Over the weekend, a few of us had been going to a cheap local noodle soup restaurant around the corner from the hostel, and G ordered me some delicious sesame noodles for lunch. After G left, Alex (a Judd Nelson from the Breakfast Club look-alike) and Dave and I went for noodles for lunch, but it wasn't the same, as neither those guys nor I could figure out how to order the same meal for me, and the guy working there wasn't the regular guy. So I had something different to eat, it just wasn't the same! But I had chou jidan (fried eggs), so that was fine.
It's safe to say that I ate and drank my way through Beijing! What a great visit, I hope to return another time and hang out with new and old friends!
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Brad
non-member comment
good stuff
Beth, glad you had a good time in Beijing! I can see you are getting more used to the China way of traveling on a dime. Keep up the great writing and keep everyone informed!