Nightlife finally
And a rich one, it looks to me.
The first time I cames, two weeks ago, with my French equipe, our night life was limited to be ripped off in a overpriced bar (80 YUAN for a beer! average price is 10), a sleepy night in a small bar near the hostel (98 bar on Meishi Jie), a lousy night in a ex-pat South-america themed bar in front of the hostel (I wrote about it before, the one with the Che Guevara pictures on the wall) and a Chinese disco somewhere I cannot remember, with Cyril pole dancing at the bar with his latest flirt.
I did not complain about this, but I was expecting something more.And by the way, Cyril was not such a good dancer.
And I found it. Thanks to my fellow CSers Serena and Catherine, whose Chinese name I am still unable to spell. Serena, being from Napoli, has not a Chinese name.
Wudaokou is a neighborhood in North West Beijing. I came here the first night to attend a CS meeting in Red House, a bar cum pizzeria. Draft beer was 5 YUAN and the pizza was quite good, cooked with wood and crispy without being dry.
As Wudaokou is close to a large number of universities and research institutes, and students all around the world like pizza (or so I remember, when I was a student in Parma it was the cheapest options, especially at Luigi’s, 1000 lire half a margherita, 2000 with a shadow of ham), it seems every other bar has pizza on the menu, alongside other cousine, from Mexican to Greek to mixed one.
Once the stomach has been satisfied, most of bars become a place for dancing or listening music.
So I moved my ass with salsa music at PyroPizza (pizza fo course), went to dance in Propaganda, then had pizza and enchiladas in La Bamba, just upstairs from the first one, and another couple of beers in Red House, due to the low prices.
Maybe tonight I will be able to listen some music at D-22, a live music venue, that promises an all girls band:
VOM is a four-piece girl band that lives for the most important things in life; rock, dresses, men and food. VOM is known for their amazing live shows where the girls serve muffins accompanied by hard hitting rock sung in Norwegian to their many dedicated fans.
You guess, I will be there!
Sanlitum is a neighborhood in the North East Beijing, with many bars and international stores, alongside a lot of the diplomatic headquarters.
The first thing you learn about Sanlitum is that the largest Adidas shop in the world is here.
Once that you get over the orgy of stores and light of the sanlitum village, you will arrive in a small street and, if a few minutes ago you were in the Chinese equivalent of Time Square, then suddenly you are in Bricklane, with barbeque on the streets, small stands selling beers and cocktails and the cigarettes selling guys I wrote before.
A numbers of bars and restaurants are available as well, and so live music.
While the population of Wudaokou is mostly students (and backpackers) with lot of time and limited budget, the population of Sanlitum is more young professionals (and backpackers), with less time and more money to spend.
So Wudaokou is open all the week long, while Sanlitum just at week end.
Difference is also in the bikes on the streets. In Sanlitum the electric scooters leave space to more western style bikes, and it is Ducatis and Harleys and BMW parked near the bars, of a higher cubic capacity than the 150s 250s usually seen on Beijing streets.
Anyway, both Wudaokou and Sanlitum are, according to their own inhabitants, foreigners ghettos.
Let’s say 50% Chinese, 50% ex-pat, 100% fun and party seeking people.