An Appetite for Adventure

From [08.09.05] First weekend in Beijing

While I’m in the thick of this weekend — including a day off tomorrow; sweet! — here’s a recap of last weekend, our first weekend out in BJ.

It didn’t take too long for us to make a few friends, especially since one of them is my dialogue partner in class. Dan’s from Toronto and he already had hooked up with Jessie from Chicago and Carl from Sweden, and along with Sean, the five of us make a nice little crew. After a great sushi dinner at a local restaurant called Isshin, we explored the Wudaokou scene, which includes lots of cheap pitchers of beer, drinking games, etc. — the usual college fare — at places like Lush and Pyro Pizza. We hung out at Pyro for a bit but skipped the late night debauchery in the bar district Sanlitun.

The next night was time to party proper. I’d been in touch with some people I knew through connections to New York, and we headed to White Rabbit, an underground electronic music venue that Beijing’s answer to New York’s Filter 14 or Sullivan Room. We hit the clubbing jackpot, because this is my kind of place: little pretense and just down and dirty beats. The club sports two rooms, with the downstairs being a bigger dancefloor. However, ventilation issues kept the downstairs closed, which was fine as the upstairs was nicely packed and the sound was surprisingly great (I had no idea what to expect from BJ).

This also marked my first gig as nightlife blogger fro City Weekend, a bi-monthly magazine covering the coolest events and latest reviews all that makes life in Beijing fun. I had the pleasure of interviewing Pier Bucci, a minimal DJ from Chile making his Beijing premier. Check out the interview here!

It was Pier’s birthday, and in probably the funniest moment of the evening, a cake was presented to him — problem was it was an ice cream cake that had been left out! The entire thing was melted! We all had a good chuckle at that one.

Sunday, we had a lovely lunch with an old college friend in town for some policy work then braved the massive electronics superstores to nab a printer and a stereo. This is a city on steroids, and the electronics markets are not an exception! The sheer number of vendors crying for your attention is mindbogglingly overwhelming. Somehow we managed to get a printer and even negotiate the price down.

PICS!