China, Beijing 9 (evenings)

October 23, 2010: My departure is slowly getting closer. During my time in Beijing I met lots of really nice and incredibly interesting people, so my last few evenings were all about „socializing“. Tonight I met up with Luanne, a Chinese woman born in South Africa who grew up in Canada and is currently studying in China. She showed me a few very local street restaurants and taught me the perfect chopstick technique. Later we met up with friends at a bar where the drinks were all-you-can-drink and free. How come? An Australian couple was throwing their farewell party there after 5 years at the Australian embassy in Beijing. Having had a great time, we later moved on with a small group to a trendy Beijing bar on the roof of a high-rise. Curious as I am, I went off to explore the place on my own. Cozy lounge corners, terraces tucked into each other and a great view. In one of the nicest corners I was amazed at the full or half-open bottles of vodka, wine and champagne on the tables. Suddenly a Chinese woman spoke to me - in Chinese, of course. Unfortunately her English was pretty shaky, and I wasn’t quite sure what she wanted from me. Luckily Luanne came to my rescue and translated that this was a private birthday party. Oops, sorry, didn’t know, I won’t bother you any longer… I was just about to turn around when the woman held me back, and Luanne went on to translate that I was very welcome to join the party… WOW! Well, I’m certainly not one to turn down a good thing, and drinking champagne by the bottle definitely has its appeal. Hugely flattered by the invitation, I politely declined. It would have been really rude to tell the people I came with: „Hey, I found something better!“ The woman added that Luanne could join the party too, but then again, there were still six others with us…
With mixed feelings we moved on to the next bar, where we met new people and had a hilarious time until the early hours. Before the night was over, the hard core of us treated ourselves to a tasty street snack.

October 24, 2010: Tonight we marveled at the biggest „TV“ ever. It was a gigantic LCD monster called „The Place“, showing music videos and all sorts of demo clips, and you can walk right underneath it.

We strolled on through Beijing’s skyscraper district…

…to one of my favorite spots (I’ve shown pictures before, but these are nicer): Beijing’s tallest building (China World Tower) under a full moon.

Up on the 80th floor, in the bar „Atmosphere“, I once again enjoyed the view to live music.

The singer Nancy J. Brown had a truly phenomenal voice and had the audience in raptures. How do I know her name? She came over to us after her performance - apparently I’d caught her eye… Very flattering indeed! ;)

October 25, 2010: On my last evening we went out for fish. Not just anywhere, but to what is probably the hottest fish restaurant in Beijing. I can’t remember ever waiting almost an hour for a table at a restaurant. But it was worth the wait. We had two incredibly delicious fish and all sorts of side dishes.

Nicely stuffed, we headed on to a cozy bar. This is another evening I’ll never forget. We were in a giddy, silly mood and it was simply phenomenal. Our laughter kept the whole bar entertained, and we were clearly having a blast. A really wonderful last evening in Beijing.