Beijing nightlife

Going from nightlife in Beijing to partying in Aarhus ( Denmark), is quite different. Here there are no night clubs, only bars and bars with a small dancing floor. Going out here is also of course much more expensive than Beijing, but not if you only drink beer (and Danes loooves beer). 

I actually miss partying in Beijing. Drinking in Helen´s or La Bamba and then heading towards to Sanlitun, or just staying in Wudakou- it will always be a great night. And if you don´t have time to go somewhere for pre drinks, but still wanna be in a good mood before hittin the big clubs, Soju+beer or Soju+Redbull is always a good choice.. :) However, if the club has open bar, DO NOT DRINK BEFORE GOING!! You would be pretty wasted if you did. And would probably end up doing something stupid. (But you would still do that just by drinking during open bar..) 

When I wrote my last post about nightlife, which was 1st of December, I had not been to many bars/clubs at all. In Wudaokou I had only been to Sensation and Propaganda, La Bamba and Helens and in Sanlitun/Chaoyang I had only been to VICS, MIX, Kokomo (and all the clubs in the same building), Salsa Caribe, Nanjie Bar, Juicy, Suzie Wong, and a place in 798 art district. 

Around December/Januar, a new club opened up in Wudakou: WU. I think we (or mostly my roomies) spent a few months going there all the time. The first few months WU gave out 5 free drinking tickets if you came before 00.00. And those 5 drinks had A LOT of alcohol in it. Two drinks and you would be feeling tipsy.. 5 drinks and you would be drunk. And I could never drink that much so I always gave away mine. And what do you do when you are drunk? Start buying shots and drinks. (So they do get some profit).

B52 at WU...

When people got bored of WU, they started going to Global. (Korean club). After they renovated the place it became really nice and people started going there more. I am proud to say that I have only been there once hehe.

The most fun clubs are definitely in Sanlitun though, and we always told our minivan chauffeur to drive us there, which was so much more convenient than waiting for cabs that never came and we could all sit together. Even though we had been to VICS so many times, and I have had some bad experiences with the club, I still enjoyed going there. I loved that there was so much dancing space ( not like sensation/propaganda/WU where everyone gets squeezed together), and I liked the designs, the clean toilets, and we almost always had fun there (even though the music did suck sometimes). However, the alcohol is still really bad and especially during Open bar nights.

VICS

Some new clubs we have been to in Sanlitun this year are G Element, Latte, and SPARK. 

I loved the stairs down to G Element, but the design inside was not that impressive. It was a fun place thought! Latte is a typical Chinese club, but with some foreigners. While SPARK.. well its one of the most expensive clubs, but so worth it!! When you get in, the first thing you see is lazerlight everywhere. Then when you walk down the stairs, you see the beautiful ceiling. And when you listen to the music, you will automatically start dancing. The bathroom was pretty impressive as well! The only negative thing was the two free drinks which we get, they were not good at all, and that they closed at 4 am??!!

G Element

Latte

SPARK! Pay 200yuan for men and 100 for women, and you will get to this place

Bathroom

I simply love going out in Beijing. (Going out in Shanghai, Shenzhen, Zhanjiang, Xi An and Guilin are not bad either!)

I am still alive

This is a little bit embarrassing for me to admit, but after my last post in May, I kinda forgot about my own blog. 

The last month for me (June) was so hectic; preparing for exams, a short trip to Shanghai visiting friends, trying to go to all the places in Beijing which I haven´t been to yet, do one last round with shopping, packing down everything, graduation, having family over for visit and saying goodbye to my friends and my latino family. In the beginning of July I headed off to India for three amazing weeks with Ricardo, then back to Beijing for one day to pick up my suitcases, fly to Norway for two weeks meetings friends and working, then straight to Denmark for my Bachelor studies. 

Today is actually the first time I am thinking about blogs, and that I actually have my own blog..
So now I´m going to start writing the posts I should have done when I was still in Beijing.  

I think it was around May that me and Yilin seriously thought about all the places we had not been to yet, so we sat down and wrote a list over places to go, things to try out and restaurants where we wanted to eat in. We knew we only had about two months left, and it would have been impossible to do all the things, but our hopes were high and we were pretty stoked about doing all the things. 
Out of the 26 things on the list, we only did 9 of them.. And we are still kinda sad about that. 




We went to Happy Valley amusement park, partied in Spark, Mix and Element, ate in TGI Fridays on Yilin´s birthday, did KTV, ate peking duck (but not with everyone as we hoped) went to Houhai and we ate at the Italian restaurant, Alioolio (in Lucky street, close to Solana shopping mall). 

It´s not like we have never tried peking duck or been to KTV, Houhai and those clubs before, we just wanted to do something all together before everyone had to leave Beijing.

Happy Valley Amusement park- definitely a fun place to visit!

This was such an awesome ride!!!!

My sister, cousin and my sister´s friend came to visit me in Beijing right before I left! (sister and cousin on right side)
This is at the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall-before the journey up

Drinking in Smugglers. ( Bar in Sanlitun)

partying in SPARK

The ceiling in SPARK

They like the duck :) 

Beautiful Houhai at night 

Farewell dinner for Santi.

Saying goodbye to Santi, my roommate and best friend was especially hard.  

We finally went to MIX again! ( After a few hours in VICS of course..) 

Yilin, me and Lina. The three cloves :) 

Turtle and me were ready for backpacking in India.

10 months in Beijing passed by incredible fast, and all I am left with are great memories and experiences which will stay with me forever. My friends, which are basically my second family, are the ones I miss the most. They brought light to my day, supported me during hard times and were always by my side. The times after Ricardo left to India was the hardest, but my family were there and always tried to make me happy and never left me alone. They are also the ones that have made me laughed soo much my stomach hurts, and getting so drunk that I´m not even gonna tell what happened..
I really love you guys. Te queiro y te extraño muchissimo!!!

I still remember the first day I got to Beijing. I knew no one. Could not speak much of mandarin and nevertheless read or write. It was scary, exciting, and I could not wait to get started with my new life here. I felt free. Free from parents, free from stress (which I learned later was not so true..), free from rules and I could just live my life.

Everyone who wanna go somewhere, but are afraid of going; don´t be! Going will be an experience which you will have for life, and imagine all the people you will meet, all the adventures and fun things you will do, learning about new cultures and a new language- you will not regret.

I love Beijing, and I will definitely go back one day. Not sure as a Chinese learning student though :)


xx
Becca no longer in Beijing