just a little bit better than dope.
So I’m updating you all from my new home, 36 floors up at the top of the JW Marriott. I was moved from my previous hotel to the M1NT company Apartment; a 3 bedroom penthouse ‘SWEET’. Full living room, dining room, kitchen, 3 bathrooms, and floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking all of Shanghai. I’ll be sharing the space with an Australian fellow who is here working in the M1NT offices, as well as one of the owners of the club, who just walked in off his flight from the UK (Don’t think he expected to see me sitting here lol).
The new view from the living room (this doesn’t come close to doing justice but):
Annnd apparently they don’t use white boards here, b/c there looks to be notes from business meetings written on ALL of the windows in this place. Which I find hilarious…
Last night I was invited by my local buddy Mino to Chinese Hot Pot. Among the series of meats, seafood, and vegetables were some questionable items such as black tofu and duck blood (???). It was actually my first REAL chinese meal since i’ve been here, and delicious!
Also got to meet a dozen other foreigners, all whom have moved here from their home countries- France, Berlin, Germany, Austria, and Mexico to name a few. Interesting how many people are coming here from other countries to live. The overwhelming consensus from the people that live here is they all absolutely love it, and i’m starting to see why.
Aside from the language barrier, everything here is fantastic. Getting around is extremely cheap and easy, very inexpensive living, yet lots of new development and money to be made here. Not to mention clubs close at 4-5am, and you can drink 24 hours a day, ANYWHERE. Feel free to take your open bottle of Tsingtao beer from the club, outside, in the car, and off to raging afterhours for more. Ever pounded a beer in the back of a cab? You should try it sometime.
It was my turn to buy the round of drinks, and Jacob spilled the shot I bought him. Of course we still had to pay for it, so I gave him a straw and told him to do work…
The highlight of my week had to be back at Jacobs house at 3am, and ordering McDonald’s for delivery. DELIVERY! Not only was it about $9 USD to get food for 3, it showed up in about 20mins by a little man who I can only describe as a “McRobot”. He had is McDonald’s branded helmet w/ facemask, maching jacket, and large square backpack to transport the food. I was told this is all executed on McScooters!! Ohhhh I wish I coulda got a pic of that. However:
Chinese homes don’t have ovens. You want baked good? You go to the bakery. Instead they have sterilization drawers for dishes. Can you buy an oven you ask? Yes, but they are insanely expensive, not to mention finding someone to install it.. assuming you can convince whoever owns the property to let you change it out. Doh!
Still can’t get over these intersections!!! Chaos.
Next update will hopefully be more from M1NT, afterall that is the reason i’m here.. I promise! Just no good club photos yet. Stay tuned 
Well nothing too crazy has happened thus far, but I wanted to make this blog so a) I have a nice online journal of my adventures, and b) eliminate answering the same questions from everyone
It was 13hrs straight, how do you think it was? Also they are 16hrs ahead so its the closest thing to a time machine i’ve ever experienced. I woke up at 8am Tuesday in San Francisco, flew out at 1pm. Landed at 7pm on Wednesday in Shanghai, and went to bed at 5am Thursday.
I did get a nice welcome in the elevator as soon as I checked in my hotel. A nice asian girl gave me her business card and told me to call her. Making friends already!
I got settled in my hotel, messed around on the internet, took a bath, and just as i’m going to bed I get an email..”You know you’re DJing tonight right?” WTF! I emailed back that no one gave me a schedule of when I was supposed to play. She says, “oh their fault, well yeah you play 1am-close” meanwhile its 12:20. Fack! Luckily the club is 1 block away so I was there within a few mins. I was warmly greeted by the GM, who within 5 minutes had me down 2 shots of Jager, 2 glasses of champagne, and had a tall rum and coke for the booth. Then he signals to the bartender “This is Risk One our DJ, get him F*cked up.” Awesome.
The club is amazing. 24th floor of the Cross Tower, overlooking the entire city on all sides. I only dock points because you’re allowed to smoke there, and anywhere else. And apparently EVERYBODY smokes. After being in Seattle and California, I felt like I smoked a pack myself after being there for a short time. Blehhh
Also should be noted that some chick apparently sprayed champagne all over the equipment the other day.. so not only are girls no longer allowed in the booth (boo), I had to DJ my first night on one turntable. Yeah.
Everyone seems to have this notion that the food will be amazing, what better place to get chinese food than China right? Not so fast. One thing i’ll clear up right now, they don’t eat orange chicken or mongolian beef here. Nor fried rice and hot & sour soup. That is all americanized chinese food. Here they eat dog, cat, live shrimp, and rumor has it, baby. Yes BABY! I can’t even hang with all that.
After the club the manager took me 20 mins across town (Cab ride was only about 5 USD) to go to a 24 hour “western” restaurant, which served pizza, pasta, burgers, chicken strips etc. For some reason i opted for the burger, which I instantly regretted after first bite. It tasted OK but the meat didn’t look anything like our meat. After a few bites I switched up to the spaghetti carbonara, which was great.
I tried some ramen place today, which wasn’t bad but I can endlessly eat noodles without getting full, and after being hungry all day and scared to try anything else, I caved in and had McDonalds 
Even that didn’t taste the same but it was familiar enough. I’m hoping to bond with some locals who can lead me to good food…
Decided to wander aimlessly around the city and see what kind of trouble I could wind up in. Figuratively speaking, as China is one of the safest places you can be. Rules are very strict, and as a result crime is low. The first thing I noticed is how fast paced it is out here. NYC has nothing on Shanghai. There are a gazillion people weaving in and out of each other on foot, bicycle, scooter, car, and other random vehicle-type things. Street lights seem to be mere suggestions, whenever there is a spare ounce of space someone is taking that opportunity to get their move on. I almost got ran over by a scooter more than once.. on the sidewalk!
Architecture is an interesting combination of traditional old chinese buildings, and flashy buildings and billboards completely lit up with LEDs. Very Time Square-esque.
I walked to the famous “Bund” which is the embankment across from the Pudong district, which has the badass skyline pictured above (top image). I was walking down the boardwalk when a couple asked me to take their picture. That was then followed by 20 questions about where i was from and what I was doing there. They were tourists too but just from another part of China (fun fact: China is about the same size as The United States). They ended up inviting me to a tea ceremony nearby, I had nothing better going on so i opted in.
View from my hotel room:
The couple were very nice and also translated the whole tea ceremony for me. I learned quite a bit about Chinese culture, while tasting 6 different kinds of Chinese teas, picking up a few mandarin words, and also learning how pathetic we Americans look to foreigners. Some notable quotes:
“Tea is an important part of Chinese culture, kind of like Starbucks and Coca-Cola for Americans”
“You are in good shape and have a nice figure, most Americans are obese from all the McDonalds and processed foods”
Yep, thats us in a nutshell. We were also able to bond over Twilight, Black Eyed Peas, and how much money Obama spends on taking vacations instead of fixing the economy. Just your average tea time with strangers. They were actually full of fun facts about China and the people, and equally full of questions about me as a DJ. And why i’m flying halfway across the world to DJ at a bar. lol
I wanted to take photos but the Tea presenter said no b/c of her Buddhist religion. I just snapped a quick one when she was out of the room of the setup. The whole presentation was fantastic actually. And only cost us $60 each! I thought China was supposed to be cheap, ah well.
Oh, and then there was the bathroom…..
After tea time my new friends parted to go to an acrobatics show, and I came back for a disco nap before DJing at M1NT again tonight.
Its now 7:16am and I need sleep. My body is all sorts of jacked up right now, no clue what time it really is.
Goodnight!
The most amazing party ever, that almost didn’t happen…
Video, Photos, and Full story inside! Read More
