Yesterday I visited a small place discretely hidden inside one of the old hutons, those traditional narrow alleys of Beijing. The owner was a friendly chap and recommended a place called the Banana Club. I was quite skeptical due to the corny name, but he wrote down the address in Chinese letters and we took a cab there.

It turned out to be a fairly hip club, crammed with friendly Chinese and bustling with neon lights. At first I had some trouble understanding how to order anything from the smug bartenders juggling bottles in a cloud of smoke, and we got quite a lot of stares since we were almost the only foreigners. Being a head or two taller than most people and sporting blond hair with blue eyes, it’s fair to say that you get some attention in China.

I even found a video from the club:
If you happen to be in Beijing, I recommend a visit.
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2 comments
Can’t say that I visited that club when I was in Beijing, but I hope they didn’t try to rip you off as they tried in the bar we visited. The waiter simply added a few hundred per cent to the bottom line and when our Chinese colleague found him out, he tried to prove a completely new math where a number of small figures added up to a much, much larger figure.
I don’t know where it was, but it should be possible to locate as it was in a bar district around a artificial lake, but we where all amazed by the cover band playing. They played western rock hits from the 80ies and 90ies like the originals, if not better. Absolutely awesome!
I think we got fair prices on the drinks, and the entry fee was ridiculously low.
Speaking of cover bands, some days later I went to Qingdao and found a club where a band performed a Rammstein song! Quite unexpected.
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