THE CITY WHERE THE SIZE REALLY MATTERS, BUT THE GAY NIGHTLIFE DOESN’T

 

Get ready for the real China. It’s nothing like Hong Kong or Shanghai. Impolite people, spitting on the streets and a terrible pollution will ‘welcome’ you; people not so much, as hardly anyone speaks English. It’s also pretty famous for tourist scams (those involved do speak English yay!), but if you have some brains you will see that and will be fine. 

 

Everything is bigger there than you think (with some widely known exceptions…). If you think you will spend an hour or two in the Forbidden City, think again. It is called a ‘city’ for a reason - bring your lunch with you! Take a local bus to the Great Wall. Make sure you don’t take the fake bus (read about this here). It’s a decent hike involving squeezing through the crowd of Chinese. And if there’s some space around you, you might become a photo model for the middle-aged women from rural areas. I literally had to run away after a few sessions of posing. 

 

For the night out there is just one bar and one club worth your attention - KAI bar (which is also called a club for some reason) and club DESTINATION. Leave your expectations back at the hotel and you will have a night to remember.

 

And last but not least when I asked my friends about the tips for Beijing; my friend who travels there often had just one tip - ‘use condom’. There’s a reason for that.