Watching the opening ceremonies: Pick your place
An Olympian pat on the back to Paul Pennay whose post on where to watch the opening ceremony brought a tear of appreciation to my eye and saved me the task of doing it myself. His post covers the city’s 26 sights for watching the Olympics on screen, the five main firework areas, your options for getting close to the Bird’s Nest, and some happenings at local bars and clubs (note: I recommend calling places ahead of time to get the most up-to-date status).
My itinerary for the opening ceremony includes about a dozen bars and the massive sky screen at The Place. After that, who knows, but most of my haunts in Sanlitun north and south - including China Doll, Saddle, Q Bar, Kokomo, and others - should be open as usual. “No price rise, c’mon by,” says manager Gleann Phealan of Paddy O’Shea’s.
Other possibilities include Yin Bar, with its rooftop view of Tiananmen Square and The Forbidden City, Suzie Wong, with its “One Night in Beijing” Party, and Bed Bar, where Acupuncture will be spinning plastic in a hutong environment. I’m sure there will be a few unexpected stops - I’m still hoping to get into the toga part in the Capital Club.
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Boyce,
a good thing you didn’t include Frank’s Place in Lido in your list. It was a disaster.
The Australian Business Chamber, AustCham, held an event there last night. The Ausseis were put outside in the heat, while other parties enjoyed the air conditioned comfort of the pub. Someone commented that perhaps AustCham got cheated on this. As the night unfolded, it didn’t matter.
As the countdown slipped into the final seconds before 8pm, someone noticed that the audio for the area outside didn’t match the TV pictures. We were getting commentary from an Australian Football game being televised on the Australian Network, but pictures from a South African channel. 8pm came and went, but no audio. Finally after about 10 minutes, even the most patient of us moved into the pub proper.
Except that the pub by now was crammed tighter than a constipated sardine in a can. Strangely, the TV and audio was fine inside the pub, except for the occasional lapse when the poor lad trying to fix the outside problem managed to tak ethe entire pub off the air.
By the time the ceremony had finished and the athletes had started entering the stadium, tempers in Franks were frayed, and perspiration levels had reached overload. The waitresses trying to deliver drinks to the tables had a near-impossible job of shunting a path through the packed people. And back again.
My friends and I peeled off at this point and hightailed it home to watch the rest of the march past in comfort.
I would not be surprised if Franks finds themselves giving refunds to all their patrons last night. And so they should. The folks who had tables booked inside ended up suffering along with the rest of us. After all, they had 100 Australians crash their party!
And I would be very surprised if the AustCham people EVER hold another function at Franks again.