Beijing Boyce

After a break of several weeks, sibling blog Grape Wall of China is back with the Friday food fight. Each week, a Chinese dish is presented and readers are asked to recommend a wine. Out of sheer desperation, this edition recycles an old story from Inner Mongolia - Earth-eating Girl Tilts At Guinness Record. See this post for full details and to recommend a wine that goes with dirt.

UPDATE: I went by Let’s Burger this afternoon and they said they don’t open until 5 PM. I guess it’s a daily thing.

One East on Third - 325 kuai.

25 Degrees - 110 kuai.

Blue Frog - 75 kuai.

There once seemed to be a shortage of decent burgers in this town. Now, it’s more a matter of financing them.

The newest outfit to join the fray is Let’s Burger, which management says will open at 5 PM today in new Nali (down from Pantry Magic). The menu includes a dozen kinds of burgers, ranging from the “Original” (RMB48), which includes 7 ounces of beef, to the “Let’s Burger” (RMB~150), which includes two kinds of beef, tiger prawns, foie gras, mozzarella, and avocado. The menu also has a half-dozen salads, five kinds of French fries (from RMB20), among other items. I’ll have more on this place… after 5 PM.

The three-floor Piazza Italia, a collaboration of more than a half-dozen major food and beverage concerns, is slated to officially launch in Guomao Huamao in October but will “soft open” in the next week or two.

I happened by last night and saw workers stocking shelves with pasta, tomato sauce, olive oil, potato chips, candy, and the like. This a massive and airy space - we’re talking thousands of square meters - with a downstairs décor that includes tans, light woods, and creamy marbles.

A quick breakdown of the three floors:

First: Includes a grocery (pasta, olives, juices, etc), Pausa Caffe (a sign listed Espresso at RMB18, Capuccino at RMB25, and Café Milano at RMB28), and Dolce E Salato, with “easy” foods such as pizza and sandwiches.

Second: Includes sections on Italian wines, meats, and olive oils, a pasta bar called Tutto Pasta, and a cooking school called Boscolo Academy.

Third: Includes a restaurant called Boscolo and chill out area called B Lounge.

The team behind the project includes Crai, a distribution chain, Cavit, which represents Italian winemakers, and Frantoi Artigiani D’Italia, from the olive oil sector.

I heard O Sole Mio playing while I was there. Let’s hope the musical selection is a bit more upbeat. How about some Pia Zadora (hey, she is half-Italian!).

I posted earlier about Mosto opening upstairs at new Nali Studio, but there is also action at “ground” level: Let’s Burger looks near ready to go. The place appeared to be doing staff training tonight and an acquaintance said he recently participated in a delicious taste test of the burgers.

Luga’s Villa opened in the former two-floor Marguerite space, just northwest of Tongli Studio, and is priced about the same as Luga’s, across from Aperitivo, though about two magnitudes fancier. A recent visit revealed a live salsa band, tasty RMB35 burgers, RMB15 Coronas, RMB10 Tsing Tao, and friendly staff.

Downstairs, Boutique Wine Cellar has replaced the bar / mini club formerly known as Mingle. Wine starts at RMB20 per glass for drinkable Californian Roundtree wine and the menu offers dozens of other choices. The deck is a pleasant place to enjoy a glass or two. I’ll psot a longer write-up on this place.

The food scene at Nali Studio is starting to drift upstairs as Mosto just opened on the third floor. The team includes head chef Daniel Urdaneta, who until recently headed the kitchen at SALT, and restaurant manager Alex Molina, formerly with Torres, who back in 2006 used to make great Mojito Martinis at Garden of Delights.

Mosto seats about 50, including space for eight at the bar, and describes its food as modern with Latin influences. The a la carte menu includes about a dozen starters, including shrimp bisque, seared foie gras, and Mesclum salad, at RMB40-RMB75, and eight main courses, ranging from pan-seared sea bass to truffled red wine risotto from RMB115. The lunch special is RMB70 for two courses, RMB80 for three courses, with a choice of three starters, three mains and two desserts (the plan is to change the menu weekly). The photo shows the staff of Mosto with some Olympic gold-medal winning athletes from Australia.

I’ll have a full write-up soon.

With the Olympics officially over, it’s time to award some alternative hardware… to my winners in the Beijing nightlife scene these past few weeks.

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Discipline: Bars and clubs

GOLD: Kokomo

Every one of my half-dozen visits found this rooftop bar rocking, with some nights seeing lineups wind down the stairs of Tongli Studio. People danced, drank, and delighted in showing their national colors - and occasionally medals - thus giving the place some serious Olympic spirit. How heavy was the traffic? One co-owner says Kokomo sold 55 cases of Corona last Friday night alone.

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SILVER: China Doll / Block 8

Athletes and celebrities showed up regularly and partied until the wee hours at these clubs, though the fluctuating cover charges were annoying. China Doll drew hundreds of athletes during the last week.

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BRONZE: Salud

My four visits in three weeks had less to do with the Games and more to do with the tasty tapas, homemade rum, friendly staff, nice mix of locals and expatriates, and earthy feel. Salud transformed from an occasional stop to a regular haunt.

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Discipline: Sports bars*

GOLD: The Den

With excellent pub grub (four-cheese pizza, Den burger, Den combo), a polite and efficient staff, and five TV screens (set to different events), it served sports fans well, not just Danes (the place became “The DenMark” for the Games). Add in a special menu (one beef-potato dish was shaped to look like the Olympics chop), a medals standings chart (the Mongolians clamored to update it after winning boxing gold on Sunday), and a fresh pile of China Dailies each day.

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SILVER: Paddy O’Shea’s

This Irish pub endeared itself to its regulars by serving up not only the Olympics, but also a healthy dose of regular sport broadcasts, including football and hurling. On one visit, the pints poured, the “Redeem Team” scored (US-China men’s basketball game), and the patrons roared upstairs, while the hurlers, uh, hurled on the main floor.

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Bronze: The concession booths

Saturday night. Check. Live beach volleyball. Check. Music. Check. Buddies. Check. What’s missing? Oh yeah. Five-kuai beer!

Hello, People’s Olympics!

(Having said that, it’s too bad the food was a disaster. If Beijing plans to feed visitors for the Paralympics the same dry goods - chocolate bars, crackers, chips, and the like - I suggest at least getting 7-ELEVEN to provide some California rolls and sandwiches.)

* Candidates: All Star, Blue Frog, Den, Hooters, Paddy O’Shea’s, Rickshaw, Room 101, and Stadium.

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Special mentions:

Fuwa

I originally thought these mascots silly, but every time their inflatable versions appeared on field, I couldn’t help but grin. They shimmered and jiggled, bounced and tumbled, and provided a light-hearted touch to the heavy-duty sports action. Given their behavior, I’m guessing they received unlimited quantities of that five-kuai beer.

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The volunteers

In terms of security checks, providing directions to seats, and waving goodbye - thumb up. I also asked a volunteer in Sanlitun if she knew of any Mexican food and she directed me to the Saddle - another thumb up. However, inefficiency tended to plague the concession stands, whether in the form of a half-dozen employees processing a single order (why not start on the next person in line?) or a lack of initiative (instead of spending two hours answering “I don’t know” to hundreds of people asking if the next stand, unlike yours, has beer, why not have one of the half-dozen idea volunteers walk over and find out?). To be fair, they did say “I don’t know” with a smile.

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The Sofitel

Hotel guests could try a flight of wines that included China’s own Grace Vineyards, thus providing a nice introduction to the local vino.

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The Ghana flag

I carried one of these with me and took photos of it in stadiums so I could send them to two former classmates who hail from that country but did not make it to Beijing for the Olympics. That flag drew a lot of attention, resulted in a few free drinks, and is now back in storage - pending the 2010 World Cup qualifications.

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Dutch fans

Their orange outfits were ubiquitous and so was their sense of good-natured fun.

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Tickets

Including a front-row seat in the upper tier for the US-Brazil women’s football final - RMB600 for 13.

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The Beijing nightlife scene

People partied in bars and clubs, on rooftops and in the streets, with friends and strangers, long past 2 AM. Over the 16 days, I did a mammoth opening ceremony pub crawl, spent almost every night out with friends, met Michael Phelps and dozens of other athletes, watched incredible sports action (both on TV and in person) and, last but not least, drank with journalists who had interviewed me about whether the Olympics would be fun. Fun? Indeed.

Establishments closed at the north gate of Workers’ Stadium for the Olympics are re-opening. A pass by tonight found Mix, Vics, and Gino Cafe all back in business. Hopefully, Outback Steakhouse and Kro’s Nest (see The Beijinger) will re-open in the next few days as well, because TVG needs some pie!

Thousands of journalists are leaving Beijing and they have served the world well by informing it about that local delicacy known as scorpions on a stick. But one wonders who will tell the follow-up stories? About the impending unemployment among vendors when the reporters are gone. About rising housing prices due to so much lumber having been used for sticks. About the despondency of scorpions who no longer feel wanted.

In any case, it seems time for this media monitoring project to look back on all those scorpion stories and award a few medals to the best ones.

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GOLD

Dave Barry, Miami Herald

Key performance:

The market was bustling with people. But here’s the thing. The Chinese people I saw all seemed to be buying things like lamb kebabs and fruit. On the other hand, the people gathered around the centipedes and scorpions on a stick were, in almost every case, tourists or American TV reporters doing fun features on weird Chinese food. These people were basically lining up to eat scorpions. A reporter would hold up a skewer of scorpions, and the camera person would get a close-up shot. Then the reporter would scrunch up his or her face, take a bite of a scorpion, chew, swallow, and declare that it really wasn’t that bad. Then, depending on how in-depth the feature was, the reporter might take a bite of seahorse.

I watched as this procedure was repeated with several different TV crews. Then the truth hit me: The Chinese don’t eat scorpions. They feed their scorpions to TV reporters. I would not be surprised to learn that the Chinese word for scorpion is “TV reporter food.”

Barry misses a perfect 10 because he limited his observations to TV reporters. Trust me, Dave, print media are just as fascinated by scorpions.

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SILVER

Dan Steinberg, Washington Post

Key performance:

Foreign media doing scorpions-on-sticks pieces is just about the lamest form of journalism imaginable. It’s hackneyed, cliched, predictable and useless. It relies entirely on the gross-out factor, and is basically Fear Factor on location. It creates an image of life in Beijing that is demonstrably fake, no different than if every visiting journalist in the U.S. sent home pieces on American food, based entirely on FedEx Field concessions or the Texas State Fair. And, on top of all that, it’s just lazy.

So here’s my version.

Steinberg provided a “meta” view and even wrote a second article about the scorpions phenomenon.

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BRONZE (Tie)

Iain Marlow, The Toronto Star

Chris O’Brien, Forbes

Both wrote good pieces - Marlow about street food , O’Brien on the broader scene - and put scorpions on a stick in its proper place as a fringe food.

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Finally, no metal is precious enough to make a medal for this blog’s readers, who broke three huge stories, including The Scorpions on sticks, scorpions in a bottle, and scorpions on a cracker. Thanks to MH and m-dawg.

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See also:

Scorpions on a stick: This post rocks!

Scorpions on a stick update: Washington Post, NBC, Miami Herald, and more

Scorpions in a… bottle?

Scorpions on a… cracker?

Scorpions on a stick update: Globe & Mail, LA Times, BBC, DNA India, and more

Scorpions on a stick update: Forbes, Wall Street Journal

Scorpions on a stick update: NBC

On a stick? In Beijing? No way!: ESPN, Boston Globe

After sixteen star-spangled days, Olympics celebrity watch is winding down. Sure, sightings continue to trickle in - Vince Vaughn at Kokomo, David Beckham at The Beach, Jimmy Page at Red Moon Bar - but this seems an appropriate time to give out some medals.

But first, thanks to Fletch, 8 Songs, TVG, Meow, m-dawg, MD, beijingdaze, Sherlock Homey, Badr, NC, TLC, and RCR for sending in sightings.

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GOLD

Evander Holyfield

“The Real Deal” didn’t get a gold medal at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, but he does now. While in Beijing for The Games, he danced to his left, danced to his left, and covered the nightlife scene like a flurry of blows to a punching bag. The former world boxing champion also showed great patience by stopping to take photos with hundreds - more like thousands - of people at Bud House, China Doll, and other night spots.

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SILVER

Jared Leto

His ubiquity threatened to overshadow the Olympics early on – until Evander showed up. The Fight Club / Panic Room actor and 30 Seconds to Mars band member was spotted in no fewer than five places in our fair city, including Commune by the Wall and the basketball stadium. Unfortunately, he didn’t take up my offer to produce a half-dozen “watchers” to stare at him for 30 minutes at the Beijing bar of his choice. It still stands.

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BRONZE (Tie)

Usain Bolt

Once he had the sprint records under his belt, the Jamaican speedster was out and about. He posed for photos, shook hands with fans, and busted moves on the dance floor at CJW.

Michael Phelps

After grabbing eight gold medals at The Games, Phelps partied at China Doll, where he enjoyed a beverage or two, wore a backwards baseball cap, and became ecstatic when NBA star / German basketball team player Dirk Nowitzki showed up. His shout of “Dirk in the house!” was heard throughout the night.

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See also:

Beijing Olympics Celebrity Watch: August 7, August 10, August 11, August 12, August 14, August 17, August 18, August 19, August 23, Jared Leto special edition, and Evander Holyfield special edition.

Celebrity Pub Crawl: The series

On Sunday, I did my third and final interview with the BBC in which I served as contrarion to the media’s “no fun Olympics” angle. (I’ve taken a similar position in interviews with Newsweek, LA Times, CBS, and others, and done lighter pieces with The Today Show, AFP, Rocky Mountain News, and others. See the links listed below).

When you only have a minute or two to speak, you need to stick to key messages. Here were mine:

- Re Beijing’s nightlife: a few weeks ago people talked about all rooftop decks being closed, regular ID checks by police, a 2 AM curfew, the banning of blacks and Mongolians from bars, and so on. It didn’t happen.

- The bar scene has largely been “business as usual.” If you wanted to dance and drink beer all night, hang out on bar rooftops, or meet athletes, you could. I’d describe Beijing as more Harry Connick Jr. fun than Red Hot Chili Peppers fun, but fun nonetheless.

- For visitors, nightlife is only part of the experience. The city left strong impressions due to its scale, historical sites, and food, as well as its stadiums, volunteers, and five-kuai pints of beer at events. And as much as the government tried to sanitize the place, visitors got a sense of the less pleasant side of the city, including the air pollution, terrible driving etiquette, and often sloppy service.

- Finally, the government is often portrayed as exerted almost puppet master-like control of its population, but the Olympics showed how far that is from the truth, as evidenced by everything from drivers and pedestrians disregarding road rules and traffic police to people spitting on the ground and “recycling ladies” grabbing near-empty water bottles from tourists’ hands. This is not a judgment, but an observation that the government had hopes for certain etiquette and the population for the most part dashed them.

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In case anyone is interested, I have listed below eight (lucky number) articles in which I was quoted. This blog was also linked to by observers such as Wondering Mind (a fellow bar lover), James Fallows (Atlantic Monthly), and Sky Canaves (Wall Street Journal), by local foodie Diana Kuan, Dan Steinberg (Washington Post) and others in response to my scorpions-on-a-stick media monitoring project, and by The Peking Duck, Huffington Post, and the Time blog in response to my posts on the South China Morning Post story that claimed Beijing planned to ban blacks and Mongolians from bars.

The articles:

Fun may be a casualty of Beijing’s effort at perfect Olympic Games
- Mark Magnier, LA Times

Beijing Actually is Fun, Really
- Manuela Zoninsein, Newsweek

All games, no fun
- Simon Montlake, Christian Science Monitor

Blogging after dark
- Dan Oshinsky, Rocky Mountain News

No Fun Games? Not Exactly
- Mitch Moxley, The Walrus Magazine

Beijing’s busy nightlife
Lester Holt, NBC

A guide to Beijing’s secrets
Jennifer Pak, BBC

China Blogs to Read During the Olympics
Steven Schwankert, IDG News Service

Food-loving friend Shake n’ Bake says chef Brian McKenna will soon leave Shangri-La Hotel’s Blu Lobster to go out on his own, something rumored for quite some time. I’ll have details on this shortly, but for those wishing to know more about McKenna’s cuisine, check out this lengthy write-up of a night spent in the Blu Lobster kitchen.

UPDATE: This Thursday is McKenna’s last day at Blu Lobster. Look for him to open a 150-seat brasserie in Beijing’s CBD later this year.

Last day of the Olympics! Here’s another quick celebrity watch update (hat tips to Fletch, 8 Songs, MD, beijingdaze, and Sherlock Homey):

Usain Bolt - China Doll

Usain Bolt and a lot of Jamaican athletes - CJW*

Kobe Bryant and Yao Ming - Basketball

Michelle Kwan - Basketball

David Wu (again!) - Paddy O’Shea’s

Gordon Brown - British Embassy

Argentina Women’s Field Hockey Team - Kokomo

Boris Becker lookalike - The Den

Pauly Shore - Everywhere in spirit

* At the Puma party, at which Bolt showed his dance moves.

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See also: Beijing Olympics Celebrity Watch: August 7, August 10, August 11, August 12, August 14, August 17, August 18, August 19, Jared Leto special edition, and Evander Holyfield special edition.

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Another quick update, this one based on yesterday’s visits:

The Den: I spent the afternoon watching The Olympics here. This place has done a great job the past two week - the food (great fries!), the consistently good service, the five TVs, the decent prices, the proximity to Sanlitun and Workers’ Stadium. They have also gotten into the spirit of The Games by offering special dishes, including a “torch” Sundae and beef and mashed potatoes in the shape of the Beijing Olympics chop!

Face Bar: A “happy hour” visit found the place pretty much deserted, but nonetheless relaxing. By the way, note that the discount applies to standard drinks and some draft beers. If you’re unsure if your beverage qualifies, check before you order, or you might get a bill that makes you less than happy.

Blue Frog: I popped in to watch the US-Argentina basketball game (much scrappier than the score showed). The place is a bit pricey and for numerous patrons the view of the big screen was partially blocked by two decorative posts (can these be put on hinges and raised during games?), but overall it is a comfortable place to watch a game.

Luga’s II: Located in the former Marguerite, just around the corner from Tongli Studio, it featured a fun live band as well as good service, RMB15 Coronas, and good RMB35 burgers.

The Saddle Cantina: A solid crowd upstairs, both on the deck and inside. Using the wall of Nali studio as a giant projection screen for Olympic events is a nice touch.

Second Floor: I didn’t visit this relatively new place, but I could see from the street that it was absolutely packed.

Kokomo: We got halfway up the stairwell and ran into a lineup.

China Doll: Again, long lineups - at both the front and back entrances (apparently, Usain Bolt turned up in the wee hours.)

The Rickshaw: A moderate crowd meant available tables meant a final pit stop to fuel up on guacamole and Brooklyn Lager.

After watching the United States edge Brazil 1-0 in a hard-fought gold medal women’s football match, I went on a short tour of the area around Workers Stadium:

Drei Kronen 1308: This new place makes its own (very good) beer but had a dearth of customers. Perhaps business might have been better if the bar’s front sign were illuminated. I tried to point the place out to a bunch of German football fans (their team had won the bronze medal earlier that night) and we walked right past its darkened facade! By the way, Bella Italian restaurant, just down the street, had the biggest crowd I’ve ever seen in the place.

The Den: Packed downstairs, it had some space upstairs, where I scarfed down the combo plate of fried mushrooms, onion rings, potato wedges, and more while arguing the merits of the Fuwa with a fellow patron. One of the three TVs there featured the US-China women’s football game from the Atlanta Olympics in 1996 (!). We managed to get the channel changed to something more current, i.e. the Beijing Olympics.

Kokomo: Packed again - has any rooftop in Beijing hit capacity as often as Kokomo since the Games began?

Given I had been out to rowing and to the football game, partaken amply of the five-kuai beer at the staidum and have been out almost every night to 3 AM or 4 AM, I packed it in early. I can say the streets around Tongli Studio were busy, though not as much as I expected, and that China Doll had a lineup as usual (the place will hold its “Ai Wan in Jamaica” party tonight - it would be fantastic if some athletes from that country showed up).

With tens of thousands of foreign journalists in town to cover the scorpions on a stick story, and occasionally the Olympics, it is hard for the individual scribe to distinguish himself or herself. But, much like a gold medalist, Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post has found that slight edge to distinguish himself from his competitors - write TWO stories about scorpions on a stick (see his second offering here).

This might impress your average reporter, but not so the readers of this blog. MH, who broke the scorpions in a bottle story, tuned up her investigation skills, so to speak, and has broken the most rockin’ story of all - The Scorpions on a stick. I’m not sure what this venerable power band would taste like, but given the outfits, I imagine quite chewy with a hint of leather.

See also:

Scorpions on a stick update: Washington Post, NBC, Miami Herald, and more

Scorpions in a… bottle?

Scorpions on a… cracker?

Scorpions on a stick update: Globe & Mail, LA Times, BBC, DNA India, and more

Scorpions on a stick update: Forbes, Wall Street Journal

Scorpions on a stick update: NBC

On a stick? In Beijing? No way!: ESPN, Boston Globe

Part five of a series on where Beijing residents enjoy a beverage (or two). This round is with music and nightlife lovers Elisabeth Tchoudjinoff and Katrina Arndt.
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(1)

Black Sun Bar
This is our neighborhood bar and a good place to start the night. The cocktails are standard but cheap. This is the only bar we know in Beijing where the foosball players’ feet are not too high above the field. It doesn’t meet professional EU standards, which is probably why we are used to it. We enjoy kicking sets of men off the table and we do so often. We are not cocky, just confident.

(2)

Liang 30 Bar
Elisabeth: This is my reason to visit Houhai. The young (read: uncomplicated) Xinjiang musicians listen to our requests and the service is friendly. We also get to plug in our iPod during music breaks, us being the music snobs we are. Plus: Live music can still be heard from the upstairs, which offers a view of the rooftops of Houhai. Major plus: The flattering mirror in the bathroom helps you turn into Narcissus for a few hours or to see the rings in your eyes Downside: The bartender can only be trusted to make Gin Tonics. And open beer bottles.

Katrina: I only come for the music and the mirror.

(3)

Salsa Caribe
If we don’t dilly dally too much, we might try to catch the end set of the salsa band, since they play with explosive energy. We don’t know how many bands play in this venue, but they recently had a singer from the Middle East. A sweaty salsa band + Amr Diab’s ‘Habibi‘ live = very happy moment. Afterwards, we dance to salsa and Arabic and African music until the wee hours. Sure, this place can be a bit of a meat market, but at least the women are playing games as well as the men.

(4)

Le Petit Gourmand
The terrace seating is comfortable (when the weather is not too hot), the food is consistently good, and it is a good place to bring a laptop and concentrate on work. We once ordered food and told them we didn’t think the wine list was sufficient, so we were allowed to bring two bottles of our own. They provided the ice bucket and glasses. However, now this place has a new wine selection, so we might not be able to do that anymore. Still, it’s a fond memory.

(5)

Ichikura / 12SQM
Katrina: Ichikura is a one-of-a-kind bar with a very nice intimate setting and a bartender who takes great care in all the details that go into making a cocktail. Each drink is like a piece of performance art. It is nice to see someone in Beijing who puts so much passion into his work. To be honest, I don’t really want to mention this bar because it doesn’t have a lot of space.

Elisabeth: 12SQM has a nice cozy setting and offers Grey Goose vodka and lychee liquor on the beautiful back wall full of liquor. The lighting is soft and the conversation is low. It is nice to sit on the cushioned window sill and watch Nanluoguxiang life pass by.

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Previously:
Paul Adkins, Entrepreneur
Chandler Jurinka, Local Noodles
Kevin Shen, T3 Terminal
Steven Schwankert, SinoScuba

See also:
Beijing Olympics picks: Wine bars
Beijing Olympics picks: Sports bars

As Fletch notes, it is good to see high-profile athletes getting beyond national houses and corporate events, and getting into the general nightlife scene - as witnessed at China Doll 3.3 last night (hat tips to 8 Songs, Fletch, and MD). Recent sightings:

Michael Phelps and other US Olympic gold medalists - China Doll

Dirk Nowitzki and the German basketball team (sans Chris Kaman) - China Doll

Michael Phelps’ cigar - China Doll

Hamish and Andy - Hilton Hotel

Diego Maradona - Basketball stadium

President of Indonesia - Gymnastics Stadium

Princess Anne - Gymnastics Stadium

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* The highlight: The exuberance of Phelps, the only athlete to win eight gold medals at one Olympics, when he saw Nowitzki enter. During the night, he kept announcing, “Dirk in the house!”

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See also: Beijing Olympics Celebrity Watch: August 7, August 10, August 11, August 12, August 14, August 17, August 18, Jared Leto special edition, and Evander Holyfield special edition.

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Note: I’m now on Twitter. To track my account, go here and click the “Follow” button in the top left corner.

More than a few of my long-term expatriate friends lamented that Olympics visitors would miss the “real Beijing” and instead find a city where the air would be clean, the traffic lighter and more orderly, the streets beautified, and the minutiae that give this city its character eliminated.

Beijing has tried to put on its “best face”, especially around the stadiums and tourist sites - new edifices adorn the city, a jungle of flowers decorate its sidewalks, and rare is the beggar found on them. The new subway line, shiny road signs, and multitudes of posters and banners are part of the package.

But if Beijing has cleaned house, it has also left dirt in the corners, smudges on the windows, and a few bags of garbage in the kitchen.

The air is still dodgy. The traffic, while lighter, clearly demonstrates the “might is right” and “pedestrian last” principles of local motorists (see this video of traffic at Workers Stadium’s east gate). And minor annoyances yet abound: every fifth taxi driver sports a bad attitude, every other person tries to get into the elevator before the people inside can get out, and service is about the same as ever, which means all over the board. And don’t even get me started on the food at the event venues. So, while people might be wowed by The Great Wall, happy with the Beijing duck, impressed by the friendliness of most people, and amazed by the beer prices at corner stores, they will also see some of the nitty and the gritty.

I live beside Workers Stadium, and here are some observations made during a one-hour walk there on a night featuring two football matches inside:

• As I leave my apartment building, the security guards say bye and I pass some residents who smile at me.
• Down the street, some tourists take photos of security guards who squat on a sidewalk and eat from foam lunch boxes.
• Cars drive down the bicycle lanes, with drivers beeping for everyone to get out of their way.
• More than 50 people huddle around a TV outside UBC Coffee for a men’s basketball game: they cheer wildly when China scores and utter a despondent “ai ya” when Spain scores, doubly so when the game goes to overtime. The manager would no doubt be happier if more than a handful of these people bought anything.
• Traffic is heavy and cars do U-turns through a crosswalk, leaving an island of worried-looking tourists stranded in the middle.
• Happy locals talk at a volume most Westerners would find annoying.
• As I pass a restaurant, a friendly employee shouts and asks if I have had dinner yet. At another spot I frequent, one of the managers gives me a wave.
• A tricycle piled meters high with giant bags of recyclable plastic slowly but surely moves along the crowded street.
• I serve as photographer for several groups of locals in front of the stadium. Hundreds of people are in front of the north gate - most are having a great time.
• A team from AC Nielsen surveys people about the Games. Do you agree this is a Green Olympics? A High-tech Olympics? A People’s Olympics? They give me a handy fan for my troubles.
• A group of 30 Nigerians with trumpets sing and dance outside the stadium to the delight of the crowd.
• A motorcyclist drives by with his young daughter behind him and even younger son squatting on the footrest - none of them wear a helmet. A police officer gives a warning and then waves them on.
• A bus beats a red light by careening through an intersection, missing some pedestrians by about a meter, while a taxi piles in behind (the three passengers inside - all foreigners and wearing Olympic badges - look apologetic and embarrassed).
• An old man with a plastic basin of water washes his arms and face beside a small building a hundred meters from the stadium as tourists pass.
• Several locals and tourists look for boxing tickets and finally find a seller: RMB100 per seat. Buyers and sellers alike end up satisfied.

There you have a mix of what makes China interesting (the energy, the people, the minutia of daily life) and frustrating (the traffic: the noise, and, for an encore, the traffic). Thus, even outside one of the Olympic stadiums, the average visitor gets at least a few peaks into what makes people alternatively smile with glee and pull their hair out in Beijing.

Where were you for the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics? Most people will have a quick answer: at home with my family, in a bar with friends, at an official viewing site with the masses.

Here’s mine: on a pub crawl through Sanlitun, Workers Stadium East, The Place and Nanluoguxiang. Here’s the time line, but before I start on a better late than never post, a big thank you to Nicholas Carre, the GM of Maxim’s and the man behind the local French publication Ping Pong, who volunteered to take photos (all but the worst ones are his - click to make them bigger).

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8 PM - Paddy O’Shea’s
It’s standing room only in this Irish bar. The ceremony starts with an awesome if somewhat scary Matrix meets futuristic punk schoolboy drumming spectacle that almost looks computer generated. We head out.

8:09 - A-Che
One bar, one 12-inch screen, three unhappy-looking middle-aged foreign female patrons…

8:18 - Mare
Manager Josh greets us out front as we stride along the quiet street. “Did you eat?” he earnestly asks. It looks like light traffic for some restaurants tonight.

8:21 - Beauty Fashion
A local hair shop: nine people, including a few with their hair setting, face the TV in an arc of glee. Across the street, a handful of people outside a convenience store watch the opening on an old tube TV.

8:24 - Tongli Studio strip
Luga’s has no power, Aperitivo and Le Bistro Parisien have light crowds, and The Tree and Nearby the Tree are closed. Higher and Higher, the ironically named bars that opened in the Pure Girl spaces after an April drug raid, are fairly full, with a police officer sitting in back and watching the action.

8:30 - Bountiful Wine Cellar
My first visit to the spot previously known as Mingle. This place looks more comfortable as a wine bar than as a club. The menu is not spectacular but includes 80 bottles, starting at less than RMB100, with Roundtree California Merlot 2004 at RMB20 per glass.

8:38 - Mesh (Opposite House)
About 30 people are gathered in front of a large screen. We decide to stay for a drink. A torturous session with the overly earnest staff ensues about where we will sit (they move seats to one spot, then we move them back again) and whether as non-hotel guests we can have a drink (the answer at first is yes, then later it is no). We decide to, uh, not stay.

8:45 - China Doll
More overly earnest employees: they videotape us at the entrance as we receive “gold medals” with blinking lights, and then stalks us in the lounge and bar where we repeatedly say, “Please, just give us a few minutes.” China Doll is the one place where the interior approaches the opening ceremony for colorfulness.

SMS from Beijing Elvis: He says there are more than 1000 people at The Place.

8:55 - Saddle
A great turnout: The management cleverly arranged a huge projection on the stark white wall of the new Nali Studios. Downstairs reveals a familiar scene of people glued to TV screens. It reminds me of that part in Mars Attack when everyone is mesmerized while watching the first alien-human meeting. You know, before the Martians go ballistic and stuff. Anyway, we’re getting thirsty, but this place is too busy to get a drink.

Meanwhile, Ciro’s has a decent-sized crowd, Cheers has a half-dozen people, and Le Petit Gourmand has about ten people (the screen does not appear to be working).

9:03 - Sanlitun strip
This string of copycat bars is packed inside and out, and the sidewalks are so full that we need to detour onto the street. Lots of locals, lots of foreigners, lots of cheering, and lots of flags - wrapped around shoulders, stuck into caps, and tattooed on cheeks.

SMS from 8 Songs: “Mayhem at Frank’s. No audio leaves Aussie function in tatters, angry drunk Aussies invading next door functions.” Uh oh.

9:11 - Sanlitun “Village”
The huge new screen near the Apple store draws a big crowd. As we watch each team enter the stadium, we hear isolated cries go up here and there from fans.

9:20 - Blue Frog
This is my first visit: it’s a stylish pub with tiled walls, a wooden bar, and two decks. After our 80 minutes of pounding the pavement, the Tiger draft doth smoothly go down. The place is about half full. We are still watching as the teams come into the stadium - big cheers in Blue Frog for Palestine and Cuba.

9:43 - Rickshaw
Two guys who say they hail from Johannesburg insist on taking photos with us outside. Inside, we watch as the Canadian team enters the stadium. (Hey, what is Dashan doing on the track!?)

By the way, why do we keep hearing bagpipes as teams come in?

9:54 - The Den / Hooters
We hear the rowdiness of The Den from 50 meters away, so we head to Hooters, which is packed with a mix of locals and expatriates. A waitress stares at my China Doll gold medal, then looks up at me in amusement. “Shiny” say her eyes.

10:01 - Drei Kronen 1308 / Stadium
This is the huge four-floor about-to-open German microbrewery / pub I have been checking on for weeks in China View. [It is now open] A manager recognizes me and takes us to its sibling sports bar, Stadium. We have a Carlsberg with the brew master and get a tour of the deck, where we can see all the way down to the copper beer tanks. Beautiful.

10:22 - Klubb Rouge
The staff is friendly but the place has a very light crowd and we are not allowed on the nineteenth floor deck to take photos. We do get a Klubb Rouge whistle at the door. We also meet our first jackass of the Olympics - an American guy in the elevator. We grab a cab and head for The Place.

10:37 - The Place
The front panel of that giant screen is turned off. No way! The huge underside is showing scrolling Coca-Cola logos. No way! Some smaller screens are set up to show the opening, but that’s like getting bathtub gin when you expect Hendricks.

10:43 - Enoteca
This place is cordoned off, but we want a glass of wine and convince security to let us through. Unfortunately, Enoteca management is as unfriendly as the guards, so we leave without ordering.

10:48 - Coca Cola land
We get into the Coca-Cola monstrosity, but only after the local security guards confer with a concerned looking foreign woman who makes sure we are not media. Coca-Cola has annoyed innumerable employees and customers at The Place by taking up the entire plaza and forcing everyone to make major detours. And it’s all so we can see… a 24 versions of Coca-Cola display… an exhibit of 6 X 3 photos of Beijing… a sign that says “Beautiful Terra Cotta Warriors” beside replicas that light up from inside… and so on. Definitely the low point of the night thus far.

A screen in the corner shows teams STILL entering the stadium and the bagpipes STILL playing.

10:57 - CJW
A walk by shows the place to be fairly full, but overly tame, so we grab a taxi and head for Nanluoguxiang.

11:15 - 12SQM
We arrive just as the Chinese team gets on the field. Some of the athletes seem a bit uncomfortable with the whole flag-waving thing.

Co-owner Joseph treats us to an opening ceremony ice cold Coopers Pale Ale. Nice! He also affirms that the viewers have heard a wealth of Scottish music: “It has been a cross between bagpipes and African drums.” A patron chimes in: “Yeah, what’s with the bagpipes?”

11:32 - Salud
As we walk to Salud, we find the bars on NLGX either packed or fairly full. Salud is the former, and while it is hard to see the screen the place has a good vibe and a nice mix of locals and foreigners. “Have fun,” says Jacques Rogge, IOC president in his opening ceremony speech. Huge cheers go up as the IOC flag is raised.

11:51 - Salud
This place is an oven, the Sahara at noon, the inside of an active volcano. It’s hot, it’s sweaty, and it seems an appropriate place to watch a huge flame get lit.

11:54 - Salud
A bunch of people carry the torch around the stadium and luckily none of them accidentally light the Japanese or American flags on fire. Then it is handed to Li Ning, China’s first gold medalist, and he… gulp… flies!?

Wow, Li is running along the top of the stadium like a pen nib along a piece of parchment, like a lone spirit atop the masses of the globe, like… to rework a Leonard Cohen line… a bird on a (moving) wire.

12:04 - Salud
Beijing, we have liftoff! The flame is lit, Salud goes nuts, and even Hu Jintao has a “Holy hop scotch at a hot dog stand - did Li Ning just friggin’ well fly across the top of the stadium!?” look on his face. We race out to watch the fireworks exploding over Houhai.

12:32 - Houhai
We are on the side street leading to Houhai, passing Huxley’s, 30, and other bars, and it is wall to wall people. An enthusiastic group of foreigners and locals chant, “Zhong guo, jia you.” We reach the bridge and see throngs in every direction. Time to get off the street and relax.

12:46 - La Baie des Anges
We were hot, famished, and thirsty, but this place has air conditioning, buffet leftovers, and plenty of wine, so all is well again. We chat with co-owner Olivier and have a few platefuls of food and a few glasses of Romaine Mohtplo 2007 (only RMB35 per glass).

We decide its time to take a few photos with our “gold medals.”

1:41 - Little Saigon
Carre wants to stop in and I’m glad we did: this place has a nice layout , a sedate terrace and, based on a quick glance, reasonable wine prices. Plus, they use empty sardine cans as wall decorations. I’ll be back soon to try the food.

1:50 - Bed
The hutong is quiet. I watch as the bartenders use their fingers to make Mojitos. Tongs, people, tongs! (I shall henceforth drink Qingdao at this place.) We chill out for a while and then head off.

2:16 - Street
No taxis - we walk.

2:27 - Houhai
As we head back at Houhai, we pass group after group of people waiting for taxis. Tempers seem to be flaring as we see three heated arguments: a local couple, a foreign couple, and a shop owner and patron. It also looks like the taxi drivers are negotiating fares. This is taking the edge off an otherwise good night.

2:45 - Taxi
We finally get a taxi and - all the way to Workers Stadium where Carre drops me off at my apartment building - we pass people desperately trying to flag down a ride.

2:57 - Elevator
A British guy says to an acquaintance: “I’m all for America taking over some of those smaller countries if it will result in a shorter opening ceremony.”

3:00 - Home
I empty my pockets, make sure I have all my notes, look out at Workers Stadium across the street, take care of some business, and then close my eyes on the opening of the Beijing Olympics.