Saturday 5 September
After sleeping off some of the excess beers, I met Luke for a delicious lunch at a simple place near our hotel - going back for the shui zhu yu along with old favourites mapo dofu and yuxiang qiezi. Went for a walk around the area which yielded little in the way of local culture, but lots in the way of Air Jordan x Air Force One goodness!
Took a cab down to the centre of town, Tianfu Square, and soaked up the piped music, the fountains, the Mao statue, the non-sun. Strolled randomly and found ourselves at the People's Park - filled with music, singing, opera and life, I was really blown away. The people here were not clinging on to some ancient culture as the city around them modernized, they were simply living it 'cos it was Saturday afternoon and that's what they do!
Grabbed some beer and xiao chi and was led by Luke's Jedi sense to the retired singles section of the park, where I got hit on by a persistent but nice enough 81 year-old lady. It was soon time for official duties so I took a cab to Jin Li and had coffee together with Raymond, William and Bian Yi from the local office. We had hot pot for dinner in a beautiful old building before heading to the venue, Huli Club.
A hot new outlet with a good local crowd, indoor, outdoor and upstairs areas, the party was a big success with DJs, musicians and artists doing their thing in succession while Tiger Crystal was going down all around. Had a beer with Xiao Ping, my new hero and the Shanghai guy who looks after North-West China, before cruising with the team for some good clean karaoke to celebrate - Wang Fei was sung, Beat It was danced to - I made it home alive and unscathed.
