Beijing Boyce

I love my K-Touch B922 phone - for one thing, the battery lasts a week - but if you’re planning to buy one make sure to lock it before putting it back pocket or you might (as I did last night) accidentally call a dozen people (apologies to all). I guess that underscored that my Taipei buddy E-Salt and I were on the move. Unlike the last time she came to town, and we ended up closing Maggies, we got a late start due to work and had a much lighter itinerary - three bars, three beers. A few notes:

Face: This is nook and cranny central, with a patio, bars and lots of lounge areas. Given the earthy yet upscale decor and the subdued lighting, I always expect to find a monk or two sipping tea or at least a nice Sauvignon Blanc. “This place is obviously trying to be trendy,” said E-Salt. “It has a nice garden but the way it’s lighted it looks like Christmas in summer.”

We stayed inside, where our fellow bar patrons included older feather-haired white men with much younger Chinese women, giving the place a Secretary’s Day feel. E-Salt opined that many of the remaining males would be more interested in hitting on me than her. The drinks are expensive - Hoegaarden draft is 60 kuai, Champagne cocktails are 115 kuai (and that’s for Moet) - but that’s the price you pay for décor, space, service and to keep Face in candles.

Nanjie: The opening party was crazy, but on this night attendance was light, the balcony being the exception. We grabbed a table outside and stuck to draft Hoegaarden - 30 kuai. Given the lack of residential space and the growing number of bars and restaurants in this area, the city would do well to cordon off the street out front from traffic, cobblestone it and create a pedestrian-friendly zone. E-Salt and I didn’t actually talk about that - we were too mesmerized by the cartoon hippo painted on the soon-to-open hip hop club across the street.

The Rickshaw: A good crowd upstairs as DJ Kris P. Cream controlled the tunes. No Hoegaarden, so we procured Stella for 35 kuai per pint and tagged on cheese sticks and an order of potato chips drenched in blue cheese. It’s hard to justify healthy eating when Beijing’s air pollution index is rapidly rising from 200 parts per million to, uh, 1,000,000 parts per million. I’m thinking we’ll make it in two years, so why not chain-smoke, eat artery-clogging food and generally live fast now, since the air will get us before lifestyle-related diseases do. Or maybe that’s just the Stella talking…

Anyway, despite the incredible free entertainment - a bunch of drunks were behind me, continually banging into my chair and providing memorable material, especially one young woman who kept (sincerely) saying, “I can be a penguin for you” (what does that mean!?) - we finished our beers and headed off into the murky night…