Beijing Nightlife Tips by bokononist

Durty Nellies - it's over near San Li Tun (bar street - packed with foreigners and overpriced drinks and general craziness) Anyway, this is one of the better ones, drinks are still pretty high but it's worth the trip for the live music and cure for Guinness withdrawal. It was here that I saw a Chinese band playing 'Sweet Home Alabama' (and not doing a great job) at an Irish bar - truly an international experience.

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Club Havana - right next to the Workers' Stadium. It's a great little club - you can sit on swings outside or dance with hip young Chinese trying to Latin dance. There are some foreigners, not too many, and many from non-western countries so it's usually a great time. Oh and the mojitos are FANTASTIC!!!

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Bla Bla bar - this is a really cool bar on the campus of Beijing Language and Culture institute. It's a little hard to find but if you ask people they'll be able to direct you. This place is packed with foreign students from all over the world, has good music, and is generally just a really cool place. It's on the second floor of a student-union type building, there's also a good sandwich shop up there and a great place to buy bootlegged CDs on the first.

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Directions: Campus of Beijing Language and Culture Institute. Be careful though, all but one gate will be locked after midnight so look for the open one unless you want to scale large fences like I did to get out

Any tour book can tell you where to find 'bar street,' San Li Tun and the other really popular bars; I preferred to go out at the bars/clubs by the universities in the Haidian district, drinks are cheaper (our favorite bar was all you can drink for $5), there are fewer tourists, and you meet all kinds of interesting places.

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Dress Code: anything goes at these places

It'll take some doing for me to remember the exact location, but there's a great bar called Sergeant Pepper's dedicated entirely to the Beatles - packed full of memoribilia, etc. Drinks were not too terribly high but it's really the atmosphere that's the draw.

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