Travel | 40. Beijing alternative scene and the hard goodbye

One of the highlights included a visit to the local alternative club, MAO Livehouse. They just so happened to have a trash-metal night (interestingly dubbed “RUSH HOUR – Also a mosh night IV”) Friday 4.11. Featuring

Logic Losing Control逻辑失控
Multi – Ego猫踢狗
NewTank
Raving Radio癫狂收音机
Saving Molly
The Lifeless
The Reason

Love the band names! These got to be local bands only. And they were! The music was surprisingly good and filled with good attitude and vibes. Just what I needed!

Also, couldn’t help but join the awesome pitting action here. After all I have been knocked around by fat finnish metalheads enough in my lifetime to feel right at home with people of my own size 😉

Here are some pictures from the gig.

PUNK NOT DEAD! :D

It was awesome! And beer & Jack Daniels didn’t cost me an arm and a leg.

After the gig, I went for a little walk of contrast, determined to score as much nightlife I could in the time I had. So I walked 3-4 km to the Sanlitun Village, the home of the most shallow and prestigious nightclubs in the city.

I checked in advance and Mix club seemed to be the exact opposite to alternative: mainstream hip-hop & R'n'B house! Too bad there was absolutely no room to dance (or walk) not that I wanted to as the music was not exactly to my taste (and way too loud).

I didn’t stay too long.

On the next day, Elise & Jasper finally got enough of me and left for Shanghai. We did, of course, agree to meet up on the road later since we were all going towards Southeast Asia.

So, I was once again travelling alone.

Thank you guys for the great travelling companionship so far.

Ok, time to go, one more time: Saturday night feverish club action!

First stop was Club Punk, which seemed like a good (albeit expensive) place for a hotel club. Drinks were over 6 € but the music and atmosphere along with modern artsy videos screened on the wall made it worthwhile for one or two drinks.

After swallowing my GT, I figured I’d hit the only place I know for sure I can get decent music and space to dance, the Coco Banana.

On the way what do my eyes see?!

American Apparel, my dear! I thought you were already extinct. (came back the following week to stock up on funky socks, headbands and t-shirts)

Can’t run away from the panda hats here!

Always wanted to get on one of these! I wonder how might one get on…

Guess which one is my drink? (hint: it is not the milk drink)

I hit the dancefloor with my heels on fire for the next 5 hours resulting in severe soakage via perspiration. That, together with 3 degrees outside temperature, led to a killer flu I’m still suffering from after one week.

Rest of the time was just hanging around with Annie Liu, waiting for my Vietnamese visa and my departure to Chengdu on Wednesday night 9.11.

To be honest, I felt terrible about having to leave this wonderful girl behind. But I was too scared and messed up from my previous relationship so I made the only logical decision at that time. Continue my journey alone, no matter how heartbroken I was.

Checking out the suburbs with random bus stings.

Men at work.

The 31 h train ride (in a hard sleeper) was no big deal. The train was super comfortable and not at all too crowded like last time I rode a train in China.

Communicating with fellow passengers was a lot harder than in Russia.

Probably because I wasn’t drunk.

Thanks for reading!

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(First published 10/11/2011 at LiveJournal)

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