San Li Tun is an interesting neighborhood - it's hard to see a higher concentration of young wai guo ren (foreigners) in this city on a saturday night. The reason for that? The high concentration of clubs and bars of course. The neighborhood is centrally located by the diplomatic district (can't be a coincidence) and the silk market. There are dozens and dozens of venues for any taste from punky discos to chill-out terrace bars to all you can drink shacks to super fashion glamour clubs. Although there is a substantial (and maybe increasing) number of Chinese hanging around the western-style venues in this part of town it seems that the average Beijinger prefers to hang around the obiquitous KTV's (karaoke) 'temples'. Not less average, I would argue is a large mass that for simple time and/or money constraints wouldn't be able to afford either on a regular basis.

Interesting are many aspects here: the chinese "voluntary squads" marching in file along the streets and alleys, some with oversized brown uniforms ("for your safety"); sometimes getting the feeling of being in a new version of what 1940's Shanghai must have been like, where lust and desire run unconstrained from any moral force; and realizing that this is the new China where an all drinks included table for a few persons in a top club costs 50,000 RMB (ca. 4600€) per night, while there are children selling flowers outside for a few yuan (cents).
"Interesting" was also an episode occurring last night to me and a hispano-swedish friend of mine while celebrating his last night in BJ. We were just having our past-midnight chicken skewer snack when we notice some LOCO sitting on top of a street sign around 3+ meters high (see photo)! What was he doing?! Well, apart from balancing his act in an obviously drunk condition he was chatting into a mobile phone. First reacting a bit startled and then amused like most other people passing by, shouting at him, laughing at him, we soon realized this needed intervention or it wasn't gonna end well. Imagine remembering a night out in Beijing by a broken skull... So we didn't take long to react and got him down in 10 sec's. How? By proving that he was really drunk and telling him we were Interpol agents. LOL!
It didn't take long and we were needed again when a salvage woman went berzerk on a man, possibly her boyfriend, while coming out of a bar. There wasn't just slapping and punching, but also hairpulling and even glass bottle throwing and shattering.. OMG! As this was gonna end badly, we did the only thing we could do and stood between the two like a brick wall. This is suposedly not too dangerous for the people standing in between as in such cases the agressiveness is of the perpetrator is directed at a clear subject and not bystanders/in-between-standers. Meanwhile other people pulled the two back and defused the situation, while she went on swearing in Chinese as bad as it can get. Nonetheless, apart from a few other minor incidents, we had a great night out. BUT WHAT A NIGHT in Beijing!!