Beijing: The Night Life

Arriving at the hostel, I was tired, and clueless as to the rough night I was about to go through. The next day, we were going to the Great Wall, and the bus left at 7:30 AM. I had no problem being up that early, and wasn't concerned. Once in the hostel, we saw a large number of foreigners our age were hanging out in the lounge, and most of them were playing MY game, poker. I immediately sat down and played with them, chatting with them all over a few beers. The ones I became most friendly with were a Quebecker, a guy from France, and two German guys.

A huge frustration for my stay at this hostel kept coming up, as I discovered for the first time when I got back that night. I went into my room to discover that my stuff, neatly piled on my bed, had been cast aside, and an Italian girl was sleeping in it. It turns out that the hostel had booked 5 people into a 4 person room. I had to be moved. Over the period of two nights, I was assigned four rooms. Always, something was wrong with a room I was in. The first one had an Italian girl in my bed (not even an attractive one), the second room had no mattress for my bed, and the third room, I was given a bed by one of my foreigner friends, not the hostel, as apparently she would be sleeping somewhere else (I'm assuming she met a guy) for the night. Finally, the fourth and last room I had was upstairs. They had run out of dorm beds, so they upgraded me to a nicer room that would've cost a lot more. I just wanted a place to sleep!

Anyway, bed problems aside, once the poker game ended, we all decided to go out to the bar. The Quebecker haggled a case of the local beer (Yanjing) down to a really good price, so we all got about 5 beers for about 10 yuan. They also had a dice game worked out for drinks, but I think there were too many people for someone to actually get drunk. I barely got a turn, let alone suffer any of the consequences.

I don't remember the rules perfectly, and probably have some mixed up, but the game essentially consisted of two dice in a glass and another glass, half full of beer. You'd bang the glass on the table, thus rolling the dice around. If the dice fell out of the cup, you had to drink an entire beer (to punish klutzes). If the dice rolled a 7, you drank the glass. If the dice rolled a 6 or 8, you'd add more beer to the drinking glass. If you rolled doubles, it would switch directions. If at any point you have to drink, you have to go again. The dice don't get passed to the next person until you roll a number without meaning.

Since we were sitting outside, we had a fair number of beggars circling us, constantly hounding us for money or beer. There was also a beggar kid, always to be watched carefully, since their small hands often wander into your pockets. I ignored them for the majority of our time, but at one point, we were buying another round of beer, and we started throwing our cash out onto the table, paying for our part. Suddenly, the little beggar kid leapt in, and grabbed what he could and took off! We all just froze in shock and kept asking each other if the kid got anything. It turned out he only managed to grab a 5 yuan bill, so no one gave chase. I turned around, and I saw the kid still running, then he stopped and looked at us, obviously very proud of himself, beaming a smile from ear to ear. I really didn't care, but that was the first time I had seen anything like the famed pickpocketing that occurs in China. I was just surprised.

After most of us were good and liquored up, the girls decided they wanted to go dance, so they lead us to a large club. Naturally, girls got in for free, and guys had to pay a cover. There were 8 guys, so we tried to haggle a cheaper price as a group, but they wouldn't budge. Eventually, some of them gave in and paid, so we all ended up paying. Then I found out how much alcohol cost! Suffice to say, I drank one beer for as long as I could.

Most of the guys didn't buy any more drinks because they cost so much, but one of the Germans took me outside (you could come and go as you pleased, they stamped your hand) and we walked to a convenience store. The German bought baijiu (pronounced Buy Joe) and went outside to drink it. Baijiu is essentially the Chinese equivalent of moonshine. You can get it in gold or white, and I hear white is much better. I hadn't tried it before, but I knew it's typically about 70% alcohol content, and that it's a harsh drink to master. I bought some juice, partially to hydrate myself, and partially to use as chaser in case the baijiu didn't sit right, and went outside to join the German.

He looked really drunk at this point, and he mumbled something I didn't hear, while handing me the baijiu. I tried a bit, and immediately drank a good portion of the juice. Baijiu tastes like really bad tequila, and I definitely did not like it. I may try the white baijiu, but I doubt it. While recoiling from the alcoholic blow to my liver, I heard the German repeat himself, and pointed behind him. Apparently, he had taken an awfully large drink from the bottle, and puked all over the place. Then he complained that he was sober (a bald-faced lie) and walked off. I gave the rest of the baijiu to a beggar, since for some reason if beggars can't get money off of you in Beijing, they'll ask for booze. We re-entered the bar, and none of us left until sunrise.