I Love China

VUE bar at Hyatt on The Bund has for many years been without doubt the bar with the best view of Shanghai by night. In my humble opinion, Flair at the Ritz Carlton in Pudong has inherited that title.

Last night I braved wind and rain from typhoon Kompasu and popped in for a few cocktails with 3 lady friends. As with almost EVERY 5 star hotel in Shanghai, the place itself is spectacular while service is still years behind. When I announced to the hostess I needed a table for 4, she just shook her head apologetically and said they were full.

Back in the days when I was still wet behind the ears, I would have turned around and went somewhere else, but 11 years in China has hardened me. I walked straight passed the hostess and found a place by the bar and invited the ladies to sit down. Within minutes, a table for four had left, leaving the table vacant for us and we moved over before proceeding to cocktails.

Why the hostess seemed determined to turn us away I don’t know. Any competent hostess would have offered us a place at the bar and then offered to seat us when a table became available. It seems the default response is always to convince the customer to go away. But anyway, I won’t let that spoil what was otherwise a lovely evening.

During the Expo, lights on the Bund and Pearl Tower go out at 11.30pm, which is already better than the usual time of 10pm, but it was sad to be plunged in to darkness so abruptly, so I’d advise you to go earlier and enjoy the lights with your drinks.

Drinks are standard 5 star hotel prices, so you’re looking at around 100 rmb per drink with service and it’s worth noting they open at 5pm so don’t show up at lunch time hoping to get a daytime view.

58/F, Ritz-Carlton Pudong,
8 Shiji Da Dao,
near Lujiazui Huan Lu
(right across the street from the Shangri-La Hotel)
Tel : 2020 1778

Yes, it’s already been a year since the last big bash at Lounge 18. This year I wanted something fairly relaxed and chilled so I booked 3 tables for 10pm at Barbarosa in People’s Park. Read the rest of this entry »

Chas and Pete (not Dave), two of my English friends living in Beijing are performing a second gig this Friday, 22nd January as part of Muse tribute band Bemused.

So if you find yourself in Beijing this Friday night and are wondering where to go, get yourself down to the Tiny Salt Coffee Bar, have a few beers and enjoy an evening of entertaining alternative rock.

WoAi and Chas at Swing Bar, Sanlitun in Beijing a couple of years ago where the manager kindly allowed us on stage to sing our version of Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here (I think it was closing time and he wanted a way to empty the bar as quickly as possible!)

Download the flyer here to get a discount on entry.

TINY SALT COFFEE BAR // 2308 SHANGDU SOHO // DONGDAQIAO LU // BEIJING
FRIDAY 22nd JANUARY 2010 // 21:00 // 40RMB (30 WITH FLYER)

If you’ve been to any club in Shanghai in the last few months, it’s impossible not to have heard this tune being played at least once during the evening. But if you don’t have Shazam on your iPhone, you might still not know what the song is called or who it’s by, so I thought I’d help out and post the details here.

It’s called Nobody by South Korean pop sensation girl group (I won’t use the word “band”) Wonder Girls. Apparently they are huge in South Korea and recently opened for The Jonas Brothers in the US as part of their bid to break in to the American market. If you like “manufactured” bands with catchy tunes that are easy on the eyes, this might be for you.

As an aside, we all know YouTube has been blocked in China which is why I’ve linked to Chinese website Youku, but I have just noticed that Youku seems to be blocked outside of China. So now I am in the ludicrous situation of having to link to a Chinese site for Chinese readers AND link to YouTube for those of you outside of China. Arrrghhhh!

So anyway, if you are outside of China, you can find the video clip here on Youtube.

Right, that’s quite enough on the Wonder Girls. For serious music lovers (especially if you’re a fan of Muse – the British band, NOT the club), watch this space for an announcement about the biggest music event of 2010 so far in Beijing next Friday night!

WoAi with Shopgirl and Dingle.

So Shopgirl reached the ripe old age of 22 yesterday and held a party at the Barbie Store on Saturday night. Among the many guests were many of Shanghai’s blog community.

Shanghai food and fashion (but mostly food) blogger Beverly.

Blog reader Kevin came over to introduce himself – hi Kevin!

I never thought I’d be involved in a threesome with Dingle and Barbie, but life’s full of surprises

Happy 22nd Shopgirl, it’s all downhill from here, trust me!

After spending an entire month in the UK, I’d almost forgotten how life can be here in this crazy city. Last night I arranged to meet my friend and financial adviser Mark for a quiet drink at the Fat Olive to catch up after a month away. He happened to bump in to some work people while waiting for me, so it ended up being a group of us.

After a few bottles of bubbly, I was more than ready to head home for some much needed sleep. Unfortunately, Mark is the kind of guy who won’t let you quietly drop out and he insisted quite forcefully that we move on to Laris, together with one of his colleagues. Not long after arriving, Mark realised he had lost his mobile phone, so he borrowed my phone to call his phone in order to try and retrieve it. The problem was, he then disappeared with my phone and after about 30 minutes I came to the conclusion he wasn’t coming back. His colleague was still with me, but announced that he was going to Bar Rouge to look for some of his friends who were celebrating a birthday. He also mentioned that it was a group of about twenty five 20 year old Asian-American exchange students, mostly female, so I thought the best thing was to stick with him so Mark could find me later to return my phone. While walking in to Bar Rouge, one of the girls on her way out suddenly asked “are you WoAi?”.

I confirmed that I was and it turns out she had just discovered my blog and commented for the first time earlier that day. That in itself was a pretty big coincidence, but she was also part of the big group of exchange students that Mark’s colleague and I were on our way to meet. They had had enough of Bar Rouge and were all leaving to go to Sky Club on Yu Yao Road.

So, off we went again, 25 or so people all jumping in to taxis in a race to the next club. I ended up in a cab with Jill (the girl who just discovered my blog) and Megan, whose birthday they were all celebrating (happy 21st Megan!). One of the protective guys in the group of youngsters spotted the two girls in a cab with this strange middle aged stranger and came running over screaming something like “who the fuck is that dude, yo?” before Jill reassured him “it’s okay, I know him”.

I have to admit, I was amused by the assumption that anyone who has his own blog cannot also be a serial rapist and axe murderer, but there you go!

So we arrive at Sky Club but Mark’s colleague is nowhere to be seen. Luckily, my new saviour Jill let me use her phone to track down Mark so I can scream down the line “where the fuck is my phone you bastard”.

There is a point to all this. It’s not the first time that I’ve started a night with one group of people in one place and ended the night at a completely different place with a completely different group of people. But I much prefer it this way, the feeling when you leave home that you never know who you’re going to meet or where you’ll end up.

It’s been a pretty hard few weeks with the apartment move, the housewarming, throwing up in Jean Georges, visitors and the usual Shanghai partying. I’m exhausted.

Tuesday @ Glamour Bar, Park Hyatt and Bar Rouge (pictured)

Wednesday @ Velvet Lounge

Thursday @ Fat Olive, Laris (pictured) and Bar Rouge.

So tomorrow morning I’m off to London for some much needed fresh non-humid air, Wimbledon tennis on the TV all day and most importantly some quality time with my family who I miss a lot. Oh, and NO PARTYING which believe or not I am really looking forward to.

Last Saturday was the 40th birthday of Wiggy, a good friend of Dingle, Swiss James and myself. He’s based in Dubai now but opted to spend this landmark birthday with the 3 people who know how to party, so he flew in to Shanghai specially to celebrate his big four zero in style.

Dinner was at Yeeha restaurant which you probably will have guessed, is a Tex-Mex bar and restaurant serving “authentic” ribs and other such Tex-Mex staples.  The food is reasonable and inexpensive but the main draw is the mechanical bull they have, one of only two in Shanghai I believe. So as we were nearing the end of our meal, the inflatable cushion that surrounds the bull started to fill up with air and the raging bull was rudely woken from its sleep.

Yeeeeeeeeeehaaaaaaa! WoAi attempts to tame the beast! (Animal lovers please note, this is not a real cow). Read the rest of this entry »

After the big 40th last year, I thought I’d tone it down a bit and just have a small intimate birthday party.  This was my 4th Shanghai birthday party after Red Room (2006), Bonbon (2007), Attica (2008).  Attica is now closed of course, as is Bonbon and Red Room (in fact, every time I have a party somewhere it closes!), so the choice of venue was a bit of a headache. It’s very hard to choose somewhere that everyone likes. Lots of people wanted to go to Muse, and it’s a great club, but it’s a little too chaotic for my liking and the waiters there were very aggressive and pushy the last time I was there, which I don’t like.

WoAi, Mark, John and Emma

This started off as a nice photo with Swiss James’ better half, but it wasn’t long before John and Mark forced their way in to the picture.

Read the rest of this entry »

Unlike most “foreigners” in China, I look a lot like a local, so I often over hear westerners talking in bars or cafes and they assume the people close by (me) can’t really follow their conversation. So sometimes it’s a foreigner trying to impress a Chinese girl and sometimes, it’s a comment about me that they think I won’t pick up on. I suppose it’s the equivalent of some Chinese people going to Germany and speaking Chinese assuming all the Germans don’t know what they’re saying.

Anyway, last night I was having a grand old time with 3 friends at Vault Bar (attached to Laris). Thursday is the best night of the week – two for one Martini cocktails all night, and as a result, there isn’t room to swing a cat in there after midnight. In fact, I think that’s why the Martinis are two for one. Almost all of us spilled half our drinks on the floor (those triangular cocktail glasses are impossible to hold without spilling when they’re full of Martini and the place is packed).

Role reversal – I said to the waitress “you be the photographer, I’ll open the bottle” and I think she did as good a job with the camera as I did with the bottle.

We then moved to Velvet Lounge which was much less crowded and we even managed to get a sofa. On the next table were 3 western men who kept looking over at my 3 friends and although the music was loud, I heard one of them say “he’s a lucky guy”. In fact, my 3 friends heard it too and started giggling.

Oh well, it could have been worse. At least they didn’t say “look at that guy in the ridiculous glasses trying desperately to cling on to his youth”. Well, perhaps they did later, but I stopped listening after the lucky guy comment!