Part 2
January 2004
Lijiang, Yunnan Province
Travelling in the Southwest, you invariably come across a lot of places catering to foreign backpackers. Towns like Yangshuo, Dali and Jinghong are full of small funky cafes and restaurants serving decidedly non-Chinese food and playing decidedly non-Chinese music. Lijiang is no different: this stunning little town is home to a multitude of family-run holes in the wall, really comfy spots to kick back and hide from the travelling life.
After spending some time around these places, you realize that the nightlife scene is decidedly atypical of the usual foreigner-fueled messes. Rather than getting all raucous and crazy, people have long conversations over beers with fellow travellers they have never seen before and will probably never see again. The drinking is a decidedly sit-down and relax affair. The music is usually enjoyable, not destroying your ears.
So after dark, places like Lijiang tend to be super tame. The backpacker places cater to a quieter crowd, and it’s a rather welcome break from the usual bar madness of Eastern China.
I was in Lijiang just before Spring Festival with my sister Juliana (visiting from New York) and Justin (fellow teacher in Hangzhou from the States). On my sister and mine’s last night in town, we went to one of the usual “minority motif” cafes and proceeded to stuff our faces on all sorts of food. During the meal, the cheap beer also started to flow a bit more than it had up to then on the trip.
Hoping for a mini night out, we debated whether to stay at our current locale or move on to find another place or, gasp, an actual bar. During the meal we had noticed that waitresses were walking in and out the door with food and alcohol at regular intervals. I’m not sure who told us, but we found out that the establishment was divided into two, one part restaurant and one part “bar” a few doors down the street.
So we moved a few doors down the street. I expected to find a similar decor and clientele, just minus the eating. How wrong I was.
The only way to describe the bar’s state when we arrived is with the words ‘completely out of control’. It was absolutely rammed with young and middle-aged Chinese people wearing cowboy hats, and a select elite were dancing on their tables to pounding 80s tunes. Alcohol was all over the place, more often than not flying out of glasses. Tables were completely covered in ashes, peanuts, dice and empty beers/pitchers/wine bottles. I was back on the East Coast!
Obviously, we made our way in and joined the festivities. Courtesy of Juliana being a Caucasian female, we immediately attracted attention to ourselves. We quickly made friends and drinking buddies. It turns out that almost everyone crashing around in the bar was from the same company, in Lijiang for some sales department conference. I’m still not sure why they were all wearing cowboy hats and sunglasses, but I guess that was their meeting’s theme or something.
They were rip-roaring drunk and loving it. Between the messy gan beis and people getting pulled up to dance in the mass of bodies, we got a bit of their story. Most of them were from Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou (predictable given the nature of China’s economy). They had come from across the country to meet in Lijiang and, well, get absolutely shitfaced wearing cowboy hats. That’s my kind of corporation.
We decided one of the guys looked like Yao Ming, even though in retrospect I don’t think he did at all. Yao Ming was one of the younger people there, and he kept telling us how much he could drink. Not too long after those boasts, he was seen passed out across a few chairs.
One of the women present was apparently everyone’s girlfriend. When we talked with some of the guys, they would turn around and say “look, she’s my girlfriend”. She was easily the most attractive woman in there, but strangely enough at the end of the night she was seen heavily flirting with a man who was not among those claiming her. I guess the other were just jealous or something (perhaps inebriated).
One guy busted out some cigars for us. There was some initial confusion over which end we were supposed to light. He assured us he knew and lit them up. He stumbled off, and both Justin and I realized that our cigars weren’t doing so well. We keep trying to light them, but to no avail. Sure enough, they guy came stumbling back and told us he had lit the wrong end. Soon after that, he was destroying us with shots of wine (what a wonderful idea at that point in time).
Meanwhile, I think Juliana was completely surrounded by Chinese men. If I remember correctly she got business cards and offers of places to stay in various cities, even though I’m sure she made it clear she was leaving China in the next few days. The Shanghai guys were the most tenacious.
The night ended with the bar a complete mess and half of Yunnan run dry. Remind me to work for a Chinese company in the future.