A little taste of nightlife in Beijing

On Friday evening and after a late dinner with a group from the office, I ended up in a local bar called The Tree. The place is quite popular because of its large list of imported Belgian Beers, including Hoegaarden and De Konick on tap. And they are served in their proper glasses! They also have a wood-fired oven in the middle of the pub and their thin-crust pizza is voted the Best Pizza in town. They also claim to have an authentic Belgian bar décor but that seems a stretch to me. The Tree is located on the famous Sanlitun street (cfr Bourbon Street in New Orleans): a major attraction for tourists, expats and locals. The whole neighborhood is very crowded at night so people flow out of the bars and onto the streets which created a drinking scene that reminded me of the time I was a student but this time I felt awkwardly out of place: the music was too loud, too much cigarette smoke in the bars, too young audience. I’m feeling the generation gap but at least I can say that I had my beer in The Tree and can move on to the next experience which came less than 24 hours later.
On Sunday morning, I woke up at 2 am and took a taxi to the sports bar the Pavilion to watch the Rugby semi-finals between France and England. The game started at 3 am and I wanted to see the game live and apparently I was not the only one. The place was packed with close to a 1000 fans from both countries with a bit more Frenchies than Brits. I counted at least 5 mega screens and two were placed outside in the garden. Being that early in the morning (or late at night) I was surprised to see quite a few kids (age 12-16) being there with their parents but then again these are the semi-finals between two rugby crazy countries. Before the game started both countries played their national anthem and that immediately fired up the place. You don’t have to teach the Brits the words to God Save the Queen, neither the French their La Marseillaise. Always a revelation for a Belgian. As most of my countrymen, I’m clueless about the Belgian national anthem. Anyhow, I met a few of my French colleagues so I went along with them and cheered for the French team who was also regarded the underdog. We were standing next to a group of English fans and that created a great amount of ambience, all in a very jovial atmosphere. The game was very close all the way to the end. England won so my French buddies were disappointed and we ended the night after saying goodbye to the English group next to us. By 5.30 am, for the second time that night, I was in bed again but with another great experience under my belt.