Beijing Boyce

The Cellar Rat and I did a quick walkabout last week. Here’s an equally quick write-up:

Toper: The beers are fresh and only 25 kuai for 300 ML / 35 kuai for 500 ML. This place is small – a few meters wide and a dozen deep – and slightly over the top with the mirrors and gilt picture frames, though it is nice to see the copper tanks. The staff speaks little English. A bottle of Dragon Seal red table wine is 188 kuai – I’d stick to the brew.

Kokomo: The deck is enclosed, which is good for keeping out the cold, but bad for air circulation. I don’t know, but the dim lighting / loud music combination doesn’t work for me, although the place does make a decent Mai Tai.

Golden: It’s in the same space as Taniwha, but with WAY more shiny stuff. We decided to move on…

Q Bar: Is it me or do the owners seem more inclined to play DJ than bartender? Even so, the staff is adept at mixology and this place is hard to beat for a good drink in Beijing.

The Den: According to a sign out front, the cover is RMB 30 and gets you a drink. According to our experience, walking away gets that cover reduced to zero. The Cellar Rat describes the Den as “a poor man’s Suzie Wong’s”, though I find it great for late-night eats. I’ve heard a few people criticize the service there, but I’ve never had a problem. The staff may not always gush with enthusiasm, but it is polite and efficient.

Like a mysterious fog slowly drifting in from the Grand Banks… like a heavy morning haze that like an unwanted guest forgets to leave for three days… like baby mice playing in cotton balls… I’m trying to find a way to describe Beijing’s record-breaking air pollution for this year, which hit 421 parts per million today. Perhaps a fellow patron describes the scene best: “It’s like watching a [figurative] skull and crossbones cross the sky.”

The past three days are by far 2007’s worst stretch, as measured by China’s government, which typically ranks Beijing last of the 84 cities it monitors. Check these before and after photos – the latter is for yesterday, 140 parts per million better than today. (Not surprisingly, China is far more liberal in defining pollution levels than the United States, Europe and Hong Kong.)

So, why am I writing about pollution on this blog? Because if you’re planning to hit a bar tonight, you better make sure your taxi driver has GPS.

(My guess is that the goal is to hit 888 parts per million because, well, 8 is a lucky number in China.)

Note: Just when we thought it couldn’t get worse, we beat yesterday’s record – today it’s 500 parts per million, which is the maximum on the pollution chart.