Jeremy and I met in the hotel bar for a whiskey to decide whether we should visit the club next door. Apart from an incredibly bizarre motto on the outside wall ("WITH YOU - ALL ARE JUST DUSTS") we know nothing about this club. Even the internet couldn't shed any light on it. We headed over around 9pm because we're in China and we're trying things and we're gonna try a club, dammit. We got metal-detectored, walked past the cover charge desk (I think, I have no idea what the desk was), and into a room of loud Eminem music, literally 20 staff, and no guests. Oh, this must just be the entry lounge, we'll get the elevator up? down? to the actual club. Nope, that's a coatcheck, and that's a restroom. This is it. Most of the staff chose this moment of confusion to swarm us, and none of them speak English. We communicate that we want beer. They bring us to a table and some couches, we sit down, they show us the menu.... it's all massively overpriced. A corona is ¥500 (~$80 usd), and budweiser is twice that. That can't possibly be correct, right? So we order two! They ask for ¥1000. I claim to only have cash, and not nearly that much. They need credit card, and need ¥1000. After a lot of back and forth we apologize and walk out, laughing.
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| No idea who this guy was, but he was also drinking in public... |
Once we're outside we light up a cigarette (when in Rome...) and discuss plans for the rest of the night. While we talked a promoter tried to convince us to go back to the club, and hands us flyers - the ¥500 is for a case of coronas. Ooooh. So almost tolerable. But there are no locals, no one dancing, no one needs a case of coronas, and no one likes Eminem. Besides which, we'd already decided it wasn't for us. So we went to a local 7-11 knockoff instead! Spent 5% as much and got a couple beers and new cigarettes (ours were terrible). These are flavored nano-cigarettes! One is menthol, as expected. Jeremy makes me guess the flavor of the other. I'm guessing different fruits and berries with no success... turns out there are two flavor-bubbles, one for red wine and one for white one. WTF, lol. It's awesome. We wandered to the courtyard of the local mall and wandered about drinking, admiring the glowing art installations, checking out bonsai, and generally people-watching. It was way more fun than we would have had in the club.
After we'd finished our drink, we went shopping (browsing) in the mall. Since we're in the banking district it's generally overpriced luxury goods, though I did find a stuffed animal for a Christmas gift. After we finish browsing the mall we continued back to the hotel. Nature forced us to detour to a dark park to recycle some beer, and suddenly we were good to keep going! We started another drink and crossed the river to admire the bridges, and then - purely on impulse - went up a staircase that lead to the city wall!
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| Unretouched, just a great looking bridge. |
We hiked along the city wall, examined the built-in ancient temple, and then did a sketchy climb where the city wall suddenly lost 10 feet of elevation. We continued hiking along the wall and down to the river, before we cut up a random alley (pictured at left,) to circle back towards our hotel. The road lead to a memorial park! For some dude* from the turn of the last century, it had a statue and an impressive structure and all sorts of engravings. It's magical to wander into another century like that with no forewarning. After admiring the courtyards we found the city wall again and headed back to the hotel - stopping briefly in another super fancy hotel (mostly to avail ourselves of the facilities). All in all we did about 6 miles... in dress loafers, so my feet were quite angry at me.
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| The gate in the city wall. Amazing find to stumble upon. |
*Editors note: This dude is actually
Dr Sun Yat-sen, the founding father of the Republic of China. He was the first president after the overthrow of the Qing empire. The sweet memorial building is actually the site of the former presidential palace, which was shelled by artillery during the revolution - nearly killing his wife. You may have heard of his protege - Chiang Kai-Shek - who ruled china for almost 50 years after Dr Sun's Yat-sen.
Jeremy and I met in the hotel bar for a whiskey to decide whether we should visit the club next door. Apart from an incredibly bizarre motto on the outside wall ("WITH YOU - ALL ARE JUST DUSTS") we know nothing about this club. Even the internet couldn't shed any light on it. We headed over around 9pm because we're in China and we're trying things and we're gonna try a club, dammit. We got metal-detectored, walked past the cover charge desk (I think, I have no idea what the desk was), and into a room of loud Eminem music, literally 20 staff, and no guests. Oh, this must just be the entry lounge, we'll get the elevator up? down? to the actual club. Nope, that's a coatcheck, and that's a restroom. This is it. Most of the staff chose this moment of confusion to swarm us, and none of them speak English. We communicate that we want beer. They bring us to a table and some couches, we sit down, they show us the menu.... it's all massively overpriced. A corona is ¥500 (~$80 usd), and budweiser is twice that. That can't possibly be correct, right? So we order two! They ask for ¥1000. I claim to only have cash, and not nearly that much. They need credit card, and need ¥1000. After a lot of back and forth we apologize and walk out, laughing. 
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