After a long day of exploring the city with future
co-workers (including a ride on “The Dragon” , the terrifying roller coaster in
People’s Square), it was time to go back to the hotel and get some rest. After a much needed shower, a few of us
went down to the hotel lobby to use the internet. While we were there a group of 10-12 young Chinese men and
women came out of the elevator and were clearly heading out for a night on the
town. We said “ni hao” and tried
to talk to them about what bars were around and other things, but they spoke
very little English. Two of the
girls spoke a bit of English and attempted to communicate with us. They told us that they were in Shanghai
on business, they work for a website similar to Yelp.com, and were from
Tianjian. After they asked us to take pictures with them and some more attempts
at communicating, they asked us to come with them to the club. Of course this was not an opportunity
to let pass by so two of us agreed to go with them and see what clubbing in
China is all about. We piled in to
four taxis and drove for about 15 minutes to a club called M2. The club was very different, but
absolutely incredible. Most (75%
or so)of the rather large club was divided into tables and set up for
individual parties to have their own semi-private space. The rest of the club was a bar area
with a few small tables and bar stools, along with a dance floor and a DJ
booth.
We were escorted to one of the semi-private tables where an
attendant brought an iPad and took our order. Our Chinese friends spent about 10 minutes ordering, and
then pulled out a massive stack of 100RMB notes. I’d estimate at least 10-15,000 RMB. I of course offered to chip in multiple
times but they refused. I was kind
of relieved because I only had about 150RMB in my wallet and wasn’t exactly
expecting to be in this kind of a situation. So after all that money went to the attendant I was left
wondering what in the world was going to happen next. Well let me tell you… first the attendant brought out three
large platters of fruits that included watermelon, grapes, cantaloupe,
etc. Next he brought two large
bottles of Gray Goose Vodka on ice and about 10 or so tall, skinny
pitchers. Following this he
brought a large pitcher of orange juice and filled a few of the pitchers. Then
he filled the other pitchers with some kind of tea, and the last with water. He then made screwdrivers in still more
empty pitchers that were at our table… while all of this was being done more
food was arriving, 3 large baskets
of French fries and ketchup were brought out for us. It was a very time intensive process but the presentation
was top notch. The attendant then
filled enough cups for everybody, passed them out, everyone stood up, “Cheers!”
was said, and down the hatch the drinks went.
The attendant never left our table. He stood there emotionless, watching intently
as people drank and ate. If at any
moment someone needed something he was there. As soon as the drink was half gone he was there to fill it
back up. Someone spills a little
water, he was there to wipe it up.
Each table had at least one of these attendants, depending on the size
of the party. Our glasses were
never empty and a great time was had by all.
Chinese culture as I have learned is quite different from my
own. In our training they told us
that people from the opposite sex don’t really touch each other and PDA is very
much frowned upon. This made the
club scene very different from the States…girls are happy to dance with each
other and touch each other a bit though not as much as back home, however most
men and women who were dancing together were not touching at all. They tended to be at least 8-12 inches
from each other at the closest point, any touching was done on the shoulder or
back and was very brief in nature. In our training we were also told that
Chinese hosts are very good. They
will always make sure you have enough of something, will never let you pay,
etc. For example, we tried to
force the cab driver both before and especially so after to take our money,
however our hosts insisted that the cab driver take their money and not
ours…and since we don’t speak Chinese it was hard to convince the cab driver
that we should pay.
Overall it was a great night, one of the most memorable
nights of my life. I made friends
despite the language barrier and got contact details for a handful of people
when I visit Tianjian. They all
insisted I visit their town and said that they would show me around. Hopefully I will be able to take them
up on their offer, and maybe by that time my Chinese will be a bit better and I
can treat them with at least a bit of the generosity that they afforded
me.
Postscript: I
was unable to take photos in the club.
I took one and then was told by the attendant that I was not allowed to
take pictures. I also did not have
my camera while I was seated in the lobby so I did not take any pictures with
my Chinese friends and my own camera.
They took some photos though, as well as some of my co-workers. I will try to get hold of at least one!
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