I had been hoping to grab an after-work drink yesterday in one of my newer favourites, the No. 8 Beer Garden - but found it closed. In fact, it looks as though everything around the north gate of the Workers' Stadium is closed. Hmm, when did that last happen? Ah yes, last summer, in the run-up to the Olympics. Tonight I went for dinner at Saveurs de Korée on Nanluoguxiang. Since it was one of the clearest evenings (if a might nippy) that we've had for a while, my friend and I were hoping to dine on their roof terrace - but we were told that all roof terraces on the street have been closed down until further notice. With the celebrations of the 60th Anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China now just a few weeks away, we are officially entering the zone of NO FUN again - just as we did last summer. Expect a clumsy and pointless 'clampdown' on the live music scene - at least, outdoors - within the next few days, 'character' bars like Maggie's and Destination being arbitrarily closed, and teams of chengguan thugs rounding up all the beggars and Africans. I am getting really tempted to skip the country before October 1st. And perhaps never come back. |
Tuesday, September 08, 2009
The Ogre does what ogres can....
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Hmm. The No. 8 Beer Garden was open again yesterday, so perhaps that was just a temporary glitch. There's some building work going on in front of Gongti, and it's not readily apparent whether there's any access to the bars and restaurants there (or whether they're even still open).
NLG businesses are being leant on fairly gently, compared to last year. Live music is still allowed, though the cops are edgy about volume levels, and trying to close things down before midnight. Whereas last year they were throwing major strops about the most trivial little things ("Your sign protrudes too far into the street", etc.), they now seem only to be concerned about getting bar staff to sign their worksheet which proves they've visited every venue on the street at least once or twice during the night.
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