[update: sorry for the half-post, looks like it somehow got eaten. Here's the full deal:]

Some of our colleagues took us to the Bai Jia Da Zhai Man (白家大宅门), located at 海淀区苏州街29号乐家花园内 海淀桥南300米 路西. I don’t know where that is either, but I’m sure if you’re in Beijing somebody there can give you directions. The room we were in had two large tables, separated by a large area the size of another table. This is used for some Peking Opera bits to entertain the guests. The table I sat at started with a round of beer. The other table started with moutai.

Moutai is a lovely Chinese liquor, normally consumed via a shot (although normally just half-ounce). It comes in a couple different varieties, including one that’s 106 proof.

We had that one.

Well, we at the beer table had just finished a toast, when the folks at the moutai table, having just done about six shots themselves, started toasting us. OK, moutai all around. Not to be outdone, I went over to their table and had another round with them. Then people started moving between the two tables to have a round with each other.

In the 80s they coined a term for this. MAD.

I’m sure they had lovely food there… I remember a sea cucumber and this dish called monkey brains that was really just a big mushroom. And this fried chicken thing that was kinda close to General Tso’s Chicken without the sweet and sour sauce.

Oof.

You’d think that after a dinner like that we’d be done, right? Nope! Off to Baby Face, it was! Baby Face is a new disco in Shanghai and Beijing. Chinese apparently aren’t into bars, which are just sitting around and drinking. They prefer to do something while drinking, so discos with dancing and karaoke are good, as are restaurants with lots of food. So discos are where things are happening.

We got a private room that seated about 20, and started up the karaoke machine. Those of us able to stand started to sing, and had a great time. Some of our crew took the opportunity to rest for a bit, recovering from the ethyl alcohol deluge. It turns out I can sing pretty well. At least, that’s what I believe. And everyone there. But then again, we may not have had all our senses with us.

We finally stumbled home about 1 AM and sacked out. Meetings for the next day were moved to 11, as we knew we weren’t getting up early.

Except for one… he was flying out that day. So approximately 4 hours later, he got up, checked out, and headed out for a 16-hour 2-leg flight back to Seattle. That’s gotta hurt…