Its been a hot minute since i’ve been out in Vegas, so I was hyped to get the call to be a part of the new Fridays at HAZE @ Aria. “I’m With the DJ” is the concept, showcasing the best open-format DJs from around the country. Catch me there this Friday April 8th! Other DJs this month include DJ Irie, DJ Scene, Fashen, and Cobra. Stacked!

Also later this month i’ll be rocking Ghostbar at the Palms for the now infamous “Snitch Wednesdays” – A true hassle-free party filled with electro, classic hiphop, and indie, and top40 hits. Yeee!

I started a blog to document all the madness (and randomness) of my recent 3 week trip to Shanghai.
24 hour Mc Donald’s delivery, Octopus on a stick, and DJing at M1NT- the largest club in Shanghai. Peep!

SHANGHAI SHENANIGANS | The Adventures of DJ Risk One

I started a blog to document all the madness (and randomness) of my recent 3 week trip to Shanghai.
24 hour Mc Donald’s delivery, Octopus on a stick, and DJing at M1NT- the largest club in Shanghai. Peep!

SHANGHAI SHENANIGANS | The Adventures of DJ Risk One

EVERYTHING THEY DO, THEY DO IT BIG

Have you ever seen a bigger Louis Vuitton bag in your life? Of course not.

Shopping here is next level. There are more shopping districts and markets than you can shake a bamboo stick at. Not to mention almost every street is lined with individual little shops that sell anything you can imagine. Most of the major stores and brands are out here, and for some reason they feel the need to build the biggest storefronts you’ve ever seen. And many of them lit top-to-bottom with flashy LED lights. You’d think they were Vegas hotels.

If you don’t feel like paying full price for that Coach bag you’re dying for, you can head to one of the fake markets to get knock-off ANYTHING. Bags, watches, phones, clothing, everything. These places are 3-4 floors and packed wall to wall with booths. They all essentially sell the same stuff and will literally try to pull you into their booth to look. I had to check a few people for grabbing me when I wasn’t even looking their direction. NO sense of personal space here.

I was hipped to these places by a friend, who said all these tiny booths have secret compartments or rooms in back, where they keep their higher quality items. The crap knockoffs are up front, they good stuff is all hidden. The shelving and walls of these booths push, fold, and slide all sorts of crazy ways revealing a whole new room of faux goods. They have catalogs of all your favorite brands and can have their “runner” bring you whatever you want to look at. I felt like i was in the middle of a drug deal. I didn’t buy anything but it was a damn cool experience.

Where I did clean up was the infamous Fabric Market, the same huge 3 story building but all dedicated to custom made clothing.. DIRT CHEAP. Suits, coats, jackets, dresses, scarves, ties, anything. They have samples, catalogs, or can make anything you want them to if you have an idea. I’m waiting on a tailor-made suit right now, should be done tomorrow.. for the whopping price of $90 USD. Also picked up 2 nice jackets for about $70 USD each. Unreal. All the employees at M1NT have their shirts and suits made here. Deals!

There’s a huge electronics market here too, but I don’t even mess with that b/c they are huge on manufacturing fake iPhone and iPads here.  Errrr’ybody is trying to sell me an iPhone 4. Yeah right. I did however get my phone unlocked there for $12, not bad.

OLD SHANGHAI

After ordering up my pimp suit, I wandered over to Old Shanghai, which is made up of great chinese architecure, and more shopping of course.  I was looking for more traditional chinese souvenirs to take home, yet still being asked ever 2mins if I want an iPhone, iPad, bag, or a lady. After much annoyance I figured out how to get rid of these guys… put them on camera. Smile!

SAD-ENDING MASSAGE

Besides drinking and shopping, the other thing to do here is get massages. Massage places here are like Starbucks in Seattle, Thai restaurants in SF, or Liquor stores in the hood. They’re on every corner. Only problem is you can’t distinguish the legit places from the “rub & tugs”.. The ones where guys stand in heavy tourist areas and every 5 feet.. “lady? you want lady? lady sex massage?” I’m cool, thanks.

My buddy said there was a spot by his house that was legit and cheap ($12 for 90mins). Shoot, sign me up! We got there and the place was nice and clean. We got in the room and they gave us the clothing to wear- apparently legit places make you wear clothes, so no one gets the wrong idea about what they do. Whatever I can deal w/ that.
The ladies come in and go to work. The massage seemed a bit unorthodox, starting with my face, but I was rolling with it. Neck and shoulders were mediocre, then she moved to arms and it was all bad. She was just quickly squeezing different areas of my arm top to bottom. WTF is this? she’s not hitting muscles or even concentrating on a single area. I dealt w/ it for several mins before asking her to stop and just move to my back. I flipped over, and it was more of the same. She was borderline hurting me b/c she was putting pressure on all the wrong places. Too much here, not enough there, etc. It was so bad I stopped her, and signaled to my friend to have him translate that I didn’t like the massage and wanted someone else. Or I’d rather just lay there and wait for his massage to be done.
She left, the manager came in, apologized and said he’d send in another person. A few mins later I got a new person, who was marginally better but tolerable. Prob the longest 90mins of my life, and pretty sure I left more tense than when I came in. $12 down the drain.

I’m told none of these girls have any formal training, which is why there are a million massage places and they are all so damn cheap.

I did end up getting the most amazing massage of my life (no happy ending) at a higher end chain called Dragonfly. 90min head, shoulder, and foot massage for around $25!! Best believe i’ll be returning multiple times before I leave on Sunday.

McNAP

I promise this is the last time I talk about McDonalds, its just such a fascinating place here. Last weekend I went after the club to get some delicious spicy wings, and to my amazement 90% of the people inside were sleep at their tables. One guy was even laying down in the booth… and the empolyees didn’t seem to care. Mind you these aren’t homeless people, they are relatively young and well dressed folk. Who seem to just pass out after eating.

I went back a few nights ago around the same time (4am), and sure enough just about everyone was asleep!! Why pay for a hotel when you got Mickey Dees…

EVERYTHING THEY DO, THEY DO IT BIG

Have you ever seen a bigger Louis Vuitton bag in your life? Of course not.

Shopping here is next level. There are more shopping districts and markets than you can shake a bamboo stick at. Not to mention almost every street is lined with individual little shops that sell anything you can imagine. Most of the major stores and brands are out here, and for some reason they feel the need to build the biggest storefronts you’ve ever seen. And many of them lit top-to-bottom with flashy LED lights. You’d think they were Vegas hotels.

If you don’t feel like paying full price for that Coach bag you’re dying for, you can head to one of the fake markets to get knock-off ANYTHING. Bags, watches, phones, clothing, everything. These places are 3-4 floors and packed wall to wall with booths. They all essentially sell the same stuff and will literally try to pull you into their booth to look. I had to check a few people for grabbing me when I wasn’t even looking their direction. NO sense of personal space here.

I was hipped to these places by a friend, who said all these tiny booths have secret compartments or rooms in back, where they keep their higher quality items. The crap knockoffs are up front, they good stuff is all hidden. The shelving and walls of these booths push, fold, and slide all sorts of crazy ways revealing a whole new room of faux goods. They have catalogs of all your favorite brands and can have their “runner” bring you whatever you want to look at. I felt like i was in the middle of a drug deal. I didn’t buy anything but it was a damn cool experience.

Where I did clean up was the infamous Fabric Market, the same huge 3 story building but all dedicated to custom made clothing.. DIRT CHEAP. Suits, coats, jackets, dresses, scarves, ties, anything. They have samples, catalogs, or can make anything you want them to if you have an idea. I’m waiting on a tailor-made suit right now, should be done tomorrow.. for the whopping price of $90 USD. Also picked up 2 nice jackets for about $70 USD each. Unreal. All the employees at M1NT have their shirts and suits made here. Deals!

There’s a huge electronics market here too, but I don’t even mess with that b/c they are huge on manufacturing fake iPhone and iPads here.  Errrr’ybody is trying to sell me an iPhone 4. Yeah right. I did however get my phone unlocked there for $12, not bad.

OLD SHANGHAI

After ordering up my pimp suit, I wandered over to Old Shanghai, which is made up of great chinese architecure, and more shopping of course.  I was looking for more traditional chinese souvenirs to take home, yet still being asked ever 2mins if I want an iPhone, iPad, bag, or a lady. After much annoyance I figured out how to get rid of these guys… put them on camera. Smile!

SAD-ENDING MASSAGE

Besides drinking and shopping, the other thing to do here is get massages. Massage places here are like Starbucks in Seattle, Thai restaurants in SF, or Liquor stores in the hood. They’re on every corner. Only problem is you can’t distinguish the legit places from the “rub & tugs”.. The ones where guys stand in heavy tourist areas and every 5 feet.. “lady? you want lady? lady sex massage?” I’m cool, thanks.

My buddy said there was a spot by his house that was legit and cheap ($12 for 90mins). Shoot, sign me up! We got there and the place was nice and clean. We got in the room and they gave us the clothing to wear- apparently legit places make you wear clothes, so no one gets the wrong idea about what they do. Whatever I can deal w/ that.
The ladies come in and go to work. The massage seemed a bit unorthodox, starting with my face, but I was rolling with it. Neck and shoulders were mediocre, then she moved to arms and it was all bad. She was just quickly squeezing different areas of my arm top to bottom. WTF is this? she’s not hitting muscles or even concentrating on a single area. I dealt w/ it for several mins before asking her to stop and just move to my back. I flipped over, and it was more of the same. She was borderline hurting me b/c she was putting pressure on all the wrong places. Too much here, not enough there, etc. It was so bad I stopped her, and signaled to my friend to have him translate that I didn’t like the massage and wanted someone else. Or I’d rather just lay there and wait for his massage to be done.
She left, the manager came in, apologized and said he’d send in another person. A few mins later I got a new person, who was marginally better but tolerable. Prob the longest 90mins of my life, and pretty sure I left more tense than when I came in. $12 down the drain.

I’m told none of these girls have any formal training, which is why there are a million massage places and they are all so damn cheap.

I did end up getting the most amazing massage of my life (no happy ending) at a higher end chain called Dragonfly. 90min head, shoulder, and foot massage for around $25!! Best believe i’ll be returning multiple times before I leave on Sunday.

McNAP

I promise this is the last time I talk about McDonalds, its just such a fascinating place here. Last weekend I went after the club to get some delicious spicy wings, and to my amazement 90% of the people inside were sleep at their tables. One guy was even laying down in the booth… and the empolyees didn’t seem to care. Mind you these aren’t homeless people, they are relatively young and well dressed folk. Who seem to just pass out after eating.

I went back a few nights ago around the same time (4am), and sure enough just about everyone was asleep!! Why pay for a hotel when you got Mickey Dees…

YEAR OF THE RABBIT, err..  BUNNY

2011 is Year of the Rabbit, and this past week M1NT had a huge party with Playboy. 2 of the Bunnies from Playboy Club in Macau were in attendance, as well as the homie DJ Echo from LA who had just flown in from Malaysia for the party. Just another ridiculous night in Shanghai, great times!

SHANGHAI NIGHTLIFE | M1NT vs Everywhere else

Risko Uno, Echo, Spenny after 88

I wanted to check out some of the other clubs in Shanghai and compare them to M1nt. I’ve been unanimously told by everyone I meet here that M1nt is hands down the best club in Shanghai, but I wanted my own frame of reference to compare.. so M1nt resident DJ Spenny took me and Echo to his Tuesday night spot at 88, an UBER Chinese club.

Two days later he took me and the Bunnies to M2, which is one of the other popular chinese clubs. And one of my new local friends took me to Rich Baby last night, which i’ve also heard ppl speak of often. There’s a few things all these clubs have in common, which is what makes them typical “Chinese Clubs”:

Rich Baby

M2

1. They are all about huge megaclubs. There aren’t that many small clubs in Shanghai, its all huge 1000+ capacity clubs, with crazy lighting and ridiculous sound systems. Sometimes they can border on cheesy, but overall they are very nice clubs. On par with Vegas..

2. They are allll about Tables/Bottle Service. Despite such large venues, the dancefloors at these spots prob wouldn’t hold more than 100 ppl. Why? Because there are tables EVERYWHERE.  Literally jam packed with tables, and most of them are sold nightly. Kind of hard as a DJ to have such a small percentage of ppl actually dancing, but that’s just how it is here (maybe they don’t know how to dance?). They will all be enjoying the music and having the time of their life,  but they don’t dance.. they just pull up their pants and lean back.

3. They LOVE the live performance. Most of the clubs will have at least one or more live performances in the middle of the night. At 88 on Tuesday (which was slam packed) they had a Michael Jackson impersonator perform twice, and at another club the promoter’s girlfriend performed 2 Rihanna songs karaoke style in the middle of the night. And ppl ate it up!

I’ve def noticed at M1NT that the ppl on the dancefloor near the booth just stare at us DJs all night, as if expecting us to put on a show for them. Really gotta ham it up out here.

4. You can’t play techno mashups fast enough for these kids. That is the music format, Dance remixes of super commercial top40 – HipHouse. Granted artists like LMFAO and David Guetta have made that popular everywhere, but not like this. I don’t even know where these DJs get their music b/c they are terrible, terrible mashups and remixes. All of which are packed with Fatman scoop chants, sirens, etc. Its all hype all the time.

5. No dress code, rarely cover. I asked Spenny about the dress code at 88… “Bro you can come in a hawaiian shirt and flip flops if you want..” good cause that’s all i packed for this trip.

Also none of the handful of clubs i’ve been to charge cover, and don’t even check IDs at the door. Come one come all.

6. All you can drink. Or at least close.. at M2 they had a special: 10 drinks for 100RMB ($15). And some places have legitimate all-you-can-drink for around the same price. And you don’t even have to tip! As there is no tipping here.. #Win.

M1NT by comparison. While still a big club w/ tiny dancefloor, has a very upscale and exclusive crowd (members and guestlist only). So the crowd is very rich Chinese, and Europeans.  It is lacking the crazy club lighting of the chinese clubs (the lack of photos is b/c the club is so damn dark!), however we can play a much better music format as there is a more diverse crowd.

PARTY IN YOUR MOUTH

One commonality among all club, bars, and restaurants here.. the TWISTY STRAW. They are everywhere, and vary in colors. I asked the manager at M1nt why they don’t have straight straws.. “is that how it is in the states? That’s a good idea, i’ll look into those”. They really don’t exist out here!

Next post will be about my shopping excursions, one of the 3 main things to do out here (eat, drink, shop). And any other debauchery that goes down between now and then.

干杯  Gan Bei!

YEAR OF THE RABBIT, err..  BUNNY

2011 is Year of the Rabbit, and this past week M1NT had a huge party with Playboy. 2 of the Bunnies from Playboy Club in Macau were in attendance, as well as the homie DJ Echo from LA who had just flown in from Malaysia for the party. Just another ridiculous night in Shanghai, great times!

SHANGHAI NIGHTLIFE | M1NT vs Everywhere else

Risko Uno, Echo, Spenny after 88

I wanted to check out some of the other clubs in Shanghai and compare them to M1nt. I’ve been unanimously told by everyone I meet here that M1nt is hands down the best club in Shanghai, but I wanted my own frame of reference to compare.. so M1nt resident DJ Spenny took me and Echo to his Tuesday night spot at 88, an UBER Chinese club.

Two days later he took me and the Bunnies to M2, which is one of the other popular chinese clubs. And one of my new local friends took me to Rich Baby last night, which i’ve also heard ppl speak of often. There’s a few things all these clubs have in common, which is what makes them typical “Chinese Clubs”:

Rich Baby

M2

1. They are all about huge megaclubs. There aren’t that many small clubs in Shanghai, its all huge 1000+ capacity clubs, with crazy lighting and ridiculous sound systems. Sometimes they can border on cheesy, but overall they are very nice clubs. On par with Vegas..

2. They are allll about Tables/Bottle Service. Despite such large venues, the dancefloors at these spots prob wouldn’t hold more than 100 ppl. Why? Because there are tables EVERYWHERE.  Literally jam packed with tables, and most of them are sold nightly. Kind of hard as a DJ to have such a small percentage of ppl actually dancing, but that’s just how it is here (maybe they don’t know how to dance?). They will all be enjoying the music and having the time of their life,  but they don’t dance.. they just pull up their pants and lean back.

3. They LOVE the live performance. Most of the clubs will have at least one or more live performances in the middle of the night. At 88 on Tuesday (which was slam packed) they had a Michael Jackson impersonator perform twice, and at another club the promoter’s girlfriend performed 2 Rihanna songs karaoke style in the middle of the night. And ppl ate it up!

I’ve def noticed at M1NT that the ppl on the dancefloor near the booth just stare at us DJs all night, as if expecting us to put on a show for them. Really gotta ham it up out here.

4. You can’t play techno mashups fast enough for these kids. That is the music format, Dance remixes of super commercial top40 – HipHouse. Granted artists like LMFAO and David Guetta have made that popular everywhere, but not like this. I don’t even know where these DJs get their music b/c they are terrible, terrible mashups and remixes. All of which are packed with Fatman scoop chants, sirens, etc. Its all hype all the time.

5. No dress code, rarely cover. I asked Spenny about the dress code at 88… “Bro you can come in a hawaiian shirt and flip flops if you want..” good cause that’s all i packed for this trip.

Also none of the handful of clubs i’ve been to charge cover, and don’t even check IDs at the door. Come one come all.

6. All you can drink. Or at least close.. at M2 they had a special: 10 drinks for 100RMB ($15). And some places have legitimate all-you-can-drink for around the same price. And you don’t even have to tip! As there is no tipping here.. #Win.

M1NT by comparison. While still a big club w/ tiny dancefloor, has a very upscale and exclusive crowd (members and guestlist only). So the crowd is very rich Chinese, and Europeans.  It is lacking the crazy club lighting of the chinese clubs (the lack of photos is b/c the club is so damn dark!), however we can play a much better music format as there is a more diverse crowd.

PARTY IN YOUR MOUTH

One commonality among all club, bars, and restaurants here.. the TWISTY STRAW. They are everywhere, and vary in colors. I asked the manager at M1nt why they don’t have straight straws.. “is that how it is in the states? That’s a good idea, i’ll look into those”. They really don’t exist out here!

Next post will be about my shopping excursions, one of the 3 main things to do out here (eat, drink, shop). And any other debauchery that goes down between now and then.

干杯  Gan Bei!

Movin On Up..

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…

HOT POT!

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…

McDelivery?

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:

Other misc things of interest..

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

Movin On Up..

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…

HOT POT!

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…

McDelivery?

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:

Other misc things of interest..

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

THE FLIGHT

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!

THE CLUB

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.

THE FOOD

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…

EXPLORING

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!