Friday, April 11, 2008

Nightlife in Beijing

Yesterday was my first night rolling out to a bar and club with the Stanford kids. We went to Lan and Mix in the Chaoyang District downtown. Overall, very fun, despite my extreme tiredness :)

Lan 蘭
http://www.lanbeijing.com/
According to the Insider's Guide to Beijing, Lan was voted 'Best Decor' in that's Beijing's 2007 Reader Bar and Club Awards and Restaurant Awards. I believe it. Lan takes up the entire fourth floor of a shopping mall and it definitely qualifies as a luxury venue. To take the bathrooms as an example, each toilet is in its own decorated room - mirrors for walls, tinted red, an island in the middle with the sink, the faucet of which is the mouth of a dramatic swan sculpture. The prices of drinks match the opulence; Christian treated us to a round of drinks and he paid the equivalent of US$115 for a handle of vodka. The NYC prices were probably why the place was very empty on a Thursday night and the few people there were middle-aged foreigners who couldn't dance very well. It wasn't exactly the most happening place, which is why we headed over to Mix shortly afterwards...

Mix
http://www.clubzone.com/c/Beijing/Lounge_Bar/MIX.html
Mix is a pretty legit club. Good dance music, despite the sleepy looking DJs, and enough people to make it fun but not so many that it was uncomfortable, although there seemed to be more guys than girls. Ordering drinks was also a ridiculously complicated procedure thanks to the extremely loud music and the usual language difficulties. Anyways, it was a lot of fun dancing with the Stanford people, and we managed to avoid the sketchies pretty well. Hooray, good times.

3 comments:

Helen said...

not to be a dork by commenting on my own blog, but...

mix was really fun! :D

Francis said...

I hope by NYC prices you mean individual drinks, because I think in most places bottle service runs $200-300+ for a fifth =P

Anuraag said...

mix was one of the most fun nights so far. hip hop!

who knew i'd be craving the type of DJs we get every week at Stanford...