This is a summary of my short trip to Beijing. I don’t want to really call this a data sheet per se because I both didn’t stay long enough nor do enough of the things that would make this a datasheet. I know we have many guys here who are much savvier about Beijing and China than myself.
I obviously used the forum knowledge to help me. Special shout outs to: Nonpareil, MaleDefined, redneckpunk. Despite traveling fairly extensively previously, I had never made a trip of this sort by myself.
Tip for Writing Datasheets/Reports: Not sure how others did it, but I basically just used Word to write my experiences shortly after they happened, then modify as things develop. This makes it easy to copy & paste into the forum text box, and then all you have to do is add style formatting and links. If you try and do it after you get back home you will forget a lot of details.
When: Early August 2012. The weather is similar to DC. Visibility sometimes low due to pollution, but it didn’t bother me. Was there for 4 days.
Why: I used the tip provided by the forum to get business class tickets. My original destination was elsewhere, and I needed an entry point into Asia. Beijing was the only place I could fly into business class during the times that I wanted.
Getting There: Direct 14-hour flight from DC to Beijing on United (Boeing 777). Business class has a 2 4 2 seating configuration, so they are kind of packing them in even there. Seats fully recline but are not particularly comfortable; still far superior to cattle class.
Hotel: Stayed in Jianguo Hotel in Chayoang neighborhood in Beijing. $114/night. Hotel is older, but room is good sized and nice. One of the reasons I stayed here was the potential logistical advantage of being close to Xiu Bar (more later). It is also right next to a subway station (Yonganli) on the main East-West subway line (line 1). Recommend it. The hotel is also right next to a Starbucks and McDonalds and the Silk Market for your entire cheap knock off goods needs. Chayoang is a fairly high-end part of Beijing.
I’m not going to write too much about Beijing (BJ) because you can readily find out a lot of typical tourist information about it. The one thing to understand is that BJ is a HUGE city, massively sprawled out. The scale is enormous, which does not make it particularly walkable. It is not like Manhattan, or even DC.
Communications: I got a local SIM for my unlocked iPhone 4 (legally unlocked from AT&T) from China Unicom (open 9:30-4pm). It had 240 texts and 3G data (300 MB) for 45 yuen. Bring your passport with you or they will not sell it to you.
Additionally, prior to leaving I got StrongVPN ($21/3 months). The VPN allows you to have US IP address and thus access Twitter, Facebook, etc. in China on your computer, cell phone, and iPad/tablet.
Getting Around
Taxi: cab drivers don’t speak English or read English. You better have your location written down in Chinese characters before you set out. All hotels have cards at the front with their location written in Chinese characters. Mine also had a list of popular tourist destinations. Most of the time I was with my friend, who speaks Chinese, so it was not an issue. Even then, sometimes they don’t know addresses. Good luck explaining something to them if you don’t speak Chinese.
Sometimes getting a cab from the street can be quite challenging, as they often just won’t take you for inscrutable reasons.
Subway: Very easy and cheap to get around with. The fare is 2 yuen to any destination (this must be heavily subsidized by the government). Subway is clean and modern, with English language instructions on the fare machines, and English names for stations. Each station typically has 4 street exits, labeled A, B, C, D (i.e. for the NE, NW, SE, SW corners). This is helpful if you plan ahead before you head out and know which exit you need. I think it stops running at midnight.
Personal Game
Game Context: Before I get into the part about women, I think it’s important to point out put yourself into context, so other guys can figure out where they likely stand relative to you. I’m medium height, white, and skinny. Although there are many aspects of game that I think I’m intermediate at, my main problem is a game fundamental: the approach. This trip helped to really expose this problem for me, and made me realize that my number one goal now is not to get on-line dates or to try and pick up girls, but to just get this fundamental skill in hand.
Wardrobe: I only brought nice, well fitting clothes. Brought two suits (one natural linen, one light gray), but did not end up wearing them. I think it was the right decision because I looked way better than the typical tourist with their ugly cargo pants and logo t-shirts. Every tourist wears that, whether from EU or US.
Women
I had a Chinese friend in BJ (no interest in her), and I told her I was coming. Thus, I cockblocked myself before I even got there, although I could have blown her off; I didn’t.
If you like Asian girls (which I do), then BJ has tons of cute girls. On the streets, in the areas I went to and stayed at, I would say there were lots of 6’s and 7’s. I think I maybe saw a few 8’s, but no girls that were so amazingly attractive that I couldn’t even think. There were essentially no fat girls, or fat people in general.
Pipelining
I used POF and DateInAsia for pipelining. Both effective. Opening line used from Jake (cedonulli blog): You’re cute. What’s your name? After that I would say my name, and ask for QQ (popular Chinese IM client that has English versions for PC/Mac) or MSN info. After I get the IM contact, chat a bit, then get mobile #. Did not calculate reply rate, but certainly much higher than I could obtain messaging US-based girls. Girls were generally 6’s or 7’s in my eyes. Mobile #’s are given fairly easily, so you can amass a collection without too much trouble. I did not go balls out on trying to collect as many as I could prior to getting there, so I had maybe 6-8 numbers prior to landing. If you focus and pipeline hard, you can obviously get many more.
I told them I was there for work and would be staying for some indeterminate time.
One of the girls was 99% DTF, very overt and sexual. Her best picture I would say was about a 6 to me. In reality she may be a 5. The problem with her was that although she listed BJ as her home, she was actually living in a southern beach town at the time while negotiating a job offer in BJ. I was not about to fly down there just for her ass. So it was not meant to be.
My short stay made things difficult logistically. You can’t really pressure girls to meet up with you, especially if they think you’re here for a while. Yes, honesty may be the best policy, but I doubt it would have magically made them jump on me.
I’m not going to write at length about my text interactions with the numbers I got; they were open to meet and definitely expressed interest, but because of my limited time, and hanging out with my friend, it just did not happen. I did not push hard for logistically favorable meets (i.e. at night with booze). If you’re staying someplace for a brief time you have to push and make it happen, but we all know that.
Women on the Street:
Nobody gave a shit that I was white, which is pretty much what I expected. I am not tall and blonde, so I did not get the stare levels that those guys would. I did get good eye contact from many cute girls, even ones that were with their boyfriends. I don’t think it was just because I was white, because for the most part people did not look at me with any particular curiosity, so I think it was genuine interest.
Language is a big fucking problem. If you don’t speak Chinese (Mandarin), the vast majority of girls are going to be really difficult to access. I think you would really have to put up some high approach numbers to find someone on the street that had passable English. I think China was a tough first country from me to start with. The language barrier was intimidating to me, and made me even more reluctant to strike up conversations than usual.
Thus, I did not do what some of the others here have done, i.e. go to McDonalds and get numbers from there.
Nightlife
I went to a popular tourist area/night life area called Hou Hai. It is an artificial lake located NW of the Forbidden City. It does NOT have convenient subway access. You need to get a cab (can be hard), take a bus (but there are no English signs telling you the route, so research before you leave your room), or walk a long ass way.
Hou Hai reminded me of the Riverwalk in San Antonio. There are lots of restaurants and bars around the lake. All of the bars are basically the same: subdued lighting, comfortable bench-style padded seats, and a live band/performer singing mostly in Chinese.
Here is some video I shot in Hou Hai of street traffic (I randomly captured one of the 3 or 4 black guys I saw in Beijing):
I would not recommend going there for pick up. The bars are not geared for approaching, and frankly the people traffic there was a little bit less attractive than in other parts of BJ. I was there on a Sat night. It was rainy, so the volume of people was likely reduced. Many of the bars were empty. I would not even bring a date here because of the poor logistics, unless this is a girl you have already banged.
I went to a bar in Hou Hai called Purple. Tsing Tao Draft (bottle) was 40 yuen, which is quite expensive in my opinion. No one attractive was there.
I also walked to Xiu Bar from my hotel on the first night I was there (a Thursday, which is apparently ladies night and the best night), and it is a trendy upscale place. Xiu Bar is located on the 6th floor of the Park Hyatt Hotel, which is surrounded by fancy boutiques (Zegna, Armani, etc.). I got there around 10 pm. 100 yuen admission which included complimentary glass of champagne. Some people got in for free, and I don’t know how or why. Wait in line was maybe 5 minutes or less. Glass of red wine was 88 yuen. Many forum members recommended this place, and it is definitely a good place for pick up.
There is an outdoor patio, a central rectangular bar with seats on all sides next to a stage. There are also a number of side rooms. Then there is a little tunnel that leads into a quieter back area with another bar and seats. A live English-language singer was performing. Next to the stage is a little dance area between the bar and the stage.
Girls were all dressed sexy. Mostly heels. Bring cigarettes. I forgot to bring my pack (I don’t smoke, but brought them due to G Manifesto), and it would have made approaching that much easier. Many of the cute girls smoke. A cigar girl was walking around, and you can smoke them right in there, but I didn’t feel like it.
Guys were dressed, for the most part, in the same shitty way guys dress all over the place. One guy (Chinese) had a suit, and he brought his own woman. Even though the place supposedly has a dress code, a lot of them were dressed a little too casually. Maybe 5-10% white guys, the rest Chinese; same statistics for the girls. It would be easy to set yourself apart.
I flirted with a girl who turned out to be the singer for the night. She was from New Zealand. She was too large (not fat, but just kind of big) for my tastes, although she seemed nice. There were a couple of Russian girls (7.5’s) I should have talked to, but didn’t. It was a real test of will power to go out solo in a foreign country where no one speaks the language.
There were lots of Chinese girls I should have tried talking to, but didn’t. No excuse, just AA. A number of girls gave good eye contact, or proximity IOI’s, or both, but AA. Lame, I know.
Guys do not approach there (but glass houses, right?). Chinese guys that were talking to women brought them. White guys talking to women were doing the typical dance behind the girl then talk, but this was only after a prolonged period of being in their vicinity. You could tell they had no plan for isolating and bringing back.
I think if I had come here 4 nights in a row, which was my original plan after the first night, something would have happened. However, I did not want to blow off my friend, and as this was not the main trip, I did not end up going there again. Additionally, I began to feel jet lagged after the first night, which was a real downer.
I think if you have your game down, Xiu is a place where you can do very well, and it is also a good place to bring a date. Don’t come here if you are on some backpacker budget.
Sanlitun Village
This is a Western-style outdoor mall located near the Worker’s Stadium, just past the Vics and Mix clubs. I met up with some friends I met travelling there, and I had one date here. As typical of many of my on-line dates, there was no sexual chemistry, so it ended up being an exercise in chatting with a girl for about 2 hours until I had to leave to go do something else.
Regular Chinese people do not appear to come here because it is fairly pricy. However, it did look like Western-loving Chinese people were there, and I saw many interracial couples (white/asian). Thus, Sanlitun may have a larger percentage of English-speaking Chinese girls than other places. I did not do any day game here. It appears to be a good venue to start a day date on, since there are several choices of places to eat and drink, and you could bounce from one to the other before going on an alcohol date.
Another area that may have larger percentages of English-speaking Chinese is Wangfujing, which is a street that is closed off from traffic (opposite the subway stop of the same name on line 1) and has many (expensive) stores on either side. It’s quite touristy, but potentially worth mining.
Summary: I really enjoyed my brief stay in Beijing, even though nothing noteworthy happened. I felt really at home in the city for some reason, but I’m not sure why, or if I would feel that way if I had to live there long-term.
I would definitely come back to China, and do the following things differently:
1. Stay longer
2. Have better game fundamentals
3. Use AirBnB for accommodations.
4. Learn a bit more of the language, some key phrases.
5. Double book at a hostel as well to use for more social interaction.
I obviously used the forum knowledge to help me. Special shout outs to: Nonpareil, MaleDefined, redneckpunk. Despite traveling fairly extensively previously, I had never made a trip of this sort by myself.
Tip for Writing Datasheets/Reports: Not sure how others did it, but I basically just used Word to write my experiences shortly after they happened, then modify as things develop. This makes it easy to copy & paste into the forum text box, and then all you have to do is add style formatting and links. If you try and do it after you get back home you will forget a lot of details.
When: Early August 2012. The weather is similar to DC. Visibility sometimes low due to pollution, but it didn’t bother me. Was there for 4 days.
Why: I used the tip provided by the forum to get business class tickets. My original destination was elsewhere, and I needed an entry point into Asia. Beijing was the only place I could fly into business class during the times that I wanted.
Getting There: Direct 14-hour flight from DC to Beijing on United (Boeing 777). Business class has a 2 4 2 seating configuration, so they are kind of packing them in even there. Seats fully recline but are not particularly comfortable; still far superior to cattle class.
Hotel: Stayed in Jianguo Hotel in Chayoang neighborhood in Beijing. $114/night. Hotel is older, but room is good sized and nice. One of the reasons I stayed here was the potential logistical advantage of being close to Xiu Bar (more later). It is also right next to a subway station (Yonganli) on the main East-West subway line (line 1). Recommend it. The hotel is also right next to a Starbucks and McDonalds and the Silk Market for your entire cheap knock off goods needs. Chayoang is a fairly high-end part of Beijing.
I’m not going to write too much about Beijing (BJ) because you can readily find out a lot of typical tourist information about it. The one thing to understand is that BJ is a HUGE city, massively sprawled out. The scale is enormous, which does not make it particularly walkable. It is not like Manhattan, or even DC.
Communications: I got a local SIM for my unlocked iPhone 4 (legally unlocked from AT&T) from China Unicom (open 9:30-4pm). It had 240 texts and 3G data (300 MB) for 45 yuen. Bring your passport with you or they will not sell it to you.
Additionally, prior to leaving I got StrongVPN ($21/3 months). The VPN allows you to have US IP address and thus access Twitter, Facebook, etc. in China on your computer, cell phone, and iPad/tablet.
Getting Around
Taxi: cab drivers don’t speak English or read English. You better have your location written down in Chinese characters before you set out. All hotels have cards at the front with their location written in Chinese characters. Mine also had a list of popular tourist destinations. Most of the time I was with my friend, who speaks Chinese, so it was not an issue. Even then, sometimes they don’t know addresses. Good luck explaining something to them if you don’t speak Chinese.
Sometimes getting a cab from the street can be quite challenging, as they often just won’t take you for inscrutable reasons.
Subway: Very easy and cheap to get around with. The fare is 2 yuen to any destination (this must be heavily subsidized by the government). Subway is clean and modern, with English language instructions on the fare machines, and English names for stations. Each station typically has 4 street exits, labeled A, B, C, D (i.e. for the NE, NW, SE, SW corners). This is helpful if you plan ahead before you head out and know which exit you need. I think it stops running at midnight.
Personal Game
Game Context: Before I get into the part about women, I think it’s important to point out put yourself into context, so other guys can figure out where they likely stand relative to you. I’m medium height, white, and skinny. Although there are many aspects of game that I think I’m intermediate at, my main problem is a game fundamental: the approach. This trip helped to really expose this problem for me, and made me realize that my number one goal now is not to get on-line dates or to try and pick up girls, but to just get this fundamental skill in hand.
Wardrobe: I only brought nice, well fitting clothes. Brought two suits (one natural linen, one light gray), but did not end up wearing them. I think it was the right decision because I looked way better than the typical tourist with their ugly cargo pants and logo t-shirts. Every tourist wears that, whether from EU or US.
Women
I had a Chinese friend in BJ (no interest in her), and I told her I was coming. Thus, I cockblocked myself before I even got there, although I could have blown her off; I didn’t.
If you like Asian girls (which I do), then BJ has tons of cute girls. On the streets, in the areas I went to and stayed at, I would say there were lots of 6’s and 7’s. I think I maybe saw a few 8’s, but no girls that were so amazingly attractive that I couldn’t even think. There were essentially no fat girls, or fat people in general.
Pipelining
I used POF and DateInAsia for pipelining. Both effective. Opening line used from Jake (cedonulli blog): You’re cute. What’s your name? After that I would say my name, and ask for QQ (popular Chinese IM client that has English versions for PC/Mac) or MSN info. After I get the IM contact, chat a bit, then get mobile #. Did not calculate reply rate, but certainly much higher than I could obtain messaging US-based girls. Girls were generally 6’s or 7’s in my eyes. Mobile #’s are given fairly easily, so you can amass a collection without too much trouble. I did not go balls out on trying to collect as many as I could prior to getting there, so I had maybe 6-8 numbers prior to landing. If you focus and pipeline hard, you can obviously get many more.
I told them I was there for work and would be staying for some indeterminate time.
One of the girls was 99% DTF, very overt and sexual. Her best picture I would say was about a 6 to me. In reality she may be a 5. The problem with her was that although she listed BJ as her home, she was actually living in a southern beach town at the time while negotiating a job offer in BJ. I was not about to fly down there just for her ass. So it was not meant to be.
My short stay made things difficult logistically. You can’t really pressure girls to meet up with you, especially if they think you’re here for a while. Yes, honesty may be the best policy, but I doubt it would have magically made them jump on me.
I’m not going to write at length about my text interactions with the numbers I got; they were open to meet and definitely expressed interest, but because of my limited time, and hanging out with my friend, it just did not happen. I did not push hard for logistically favorable meets (i.e. at night with booze). If you’re staying someplace for a brief time you have to push and make it happen, but we all know that.
Women on the Street:
Nobody gave a shit that I was white, which is pretty much what I expected. I am not tall and blonde, so I did not get the stare levels that those guys would. I did get good eye contact from many cute girls, even ones that were with their boyfriends. I don’t think it was just because I was white, because for the most part people did not look at me with any particular curiosity, so I think it was genuine interest.
Language is a big fucking problem. If you don’t speak Chinese (Mandarin), the vast majority of girls are going to be really difficult to access. I think you would really have to put up some high approach numbers to find someone on the street that had passable English. I think China was a tough first country from me to start with. The language barrier was intimidating to me, and made me even more reluctant to strike up conversations than usual.
Thus, I did not do what some of the others here have done, i.e. go to McDonalds and get numbers from there.
Nightlife
I went to a popular tourist area/night life area called Hou Hai. It is an artificial lake located NW of the Forbidden City. It does NOT have convenient subway access. You need to get a cab (can be hard), take a bus (but there are no English signs telling you the route, so research before you leave your room), or walk a long ass way.
Hou Hai reminded me of the Riverwalk in San Antonio. There are lots of restaurants and bars around the lake. All of the bars are basically the same: subdued lighting, comfortable bench-style padded seats, and a live band/performer singing mostly in Chinese.
Here is some video I shot in Hou Hai of street traffic (I randomly captured one of the 3 or 4 black guys I saw in Beijing):
I would not recommend going there for pick up. The bars are not geared for approaching, and frankly the people traffic there was a little bit less attractive than in other parts of BJ. I was there on a Sat night. It was rainy, so the volume of people was likely reduced. Many of the bars were empty. I would not even bring a date here because of the poor logistics, unless this is a girl you have already banged.
I went to a bar in Hou Hai called Purple. Tsing Tao Draft (bottle) was 40 yuen, which is quite expensive in my opinion. No one attractive was there.
I also walked to Xiu Bar from my hotel on the first night I was there (a Thursday, which is apparently ladies night and the best night), and it is a trendy upscale place. Xiu Bar is located on the 6th floor of the Park Hyatt Hotel, which is surrounded by fancy boutiques (Zegna, Armani, etc.). I got there around 10 pm. 100 yuen admission which included complimentary glass of champagne. Some people got in for free, and I don’t know how or why. Wait in line was maybe 5 minutes or less. Glass of red wine was 88 yuen. Many forum members recommended this place, and it is definitely a good place for pick up.
There is an outdoor patio, a central rectangular bar with seats on all sides next to a stage. There are also a number of side rooms. Then there is a little tunnel that leads into a quieter back area with another bar and seats. A live English-language singer was performing. Next to the stage is a little dance area between the bar and the stage.
Girls were all dressed sexy. Mostly heels. Bring cigarettes. I forgot to bring my pack (I don’t smoke, but brought them due to G Manifesto), and it would have made approaching that much easier. Many of the cute girls smoke. A cigar girl was walking around, and you can smoke them right in there, but I didn’t feel like it.
Guys were dressed, for the most part, in the same shitty way guys dress all over the place. One guy (Chinese) had a suit, and he brought his own woman. Even though the place supposedly has a dress code, a lot of them were dressed a little too casually. Maybe 5-10% white guys, the rest Chinese; same statistics for the girls. It would be easy to set yourself apart.
I flirted with a girl who turned out to be the singer for the night. She was from New Zealand. She was too large (not fat, but just kind of big) for my tastes, although she seemed nice. There were a couple of Russian girls (7.5’s) I should have talked to, but didn’t. It was a real test of will power to go out solo in a foreign country where no one speaks the language.
There were lots of Chinese girls I should have tried talking to, but didn’t. No excuse, just AA. A number of girls gave good eye contact, or proximity IOI’s, or both, but AA. Lame, I know.
Guys do not approach there (but glass houses, right?). Chinese guys that were talking to women brought them. White guys talking to women were doing the typical dance behind the girl then talk, but this was only after a prolonged period of being in their vicinity. You could tell they had no plan for isolating and bringing back.
I think if I had come here 4 nights in a row, which was my original plan after the first night, something would have happened. However, I did not want to blow off my friend, and as this was not the main trip, I did not end up going there again. Additionally, I began to feel jet lagged after the first night, which was a real downer.
I think if you have your game down, Xiu is a place where you can do very well, and it is also a good place to bring a date. Don’t come here if you are on some backpacker budget.
Sanlitun Village
This is a Western-style outdoor mall located near the Worker’s Stadium, just past the Vics and Mix clubs. I met up with some friends I met travelling there, and I had one date here. As typical of many of my on-line dates, there was no sexual chemistry, so it ended up being an exercise in chatting with a girl for about 2 hours until I had to leave to go do something else.
Regular Chinese people do not appear to come here because it is fairly pricy. However, it did look like Western-loving Chinese people were there, and I saw many interracial couples (white/asian). Thus, Sanlitun may have a larger percentage of English-speaking Chinese girls than other places. I did not do any day game here. It appears to be a good venue to start a day date on, since there are several choices of places to eat and drink, and you could bounce from one to the other before going on an alcohol date.
Another area that may have larger percentages of English-speaking Chinese is Wangfujing, which is a street that is closed off from traffic (opposite the subway stop of the same name on line 1) and has many (expensive) stores on either side. It’s quite touristy, but potentially worth mining.
Summary: I really enjoyed my brief stay in Beijing, even though nothing noteworthy happened. I felt really at home in the city for some reason, but I’m not sure why, or if I would feel that way if I had to live there long-term.
I would definitely come back to China, and do the following things differently:
1. Stay longer
2. Have better game fundamentals
3. Use AirBnB for accommodations.
4. Learn a bit more of the language, some key phrases.
5. Double book at a hostel as well to use for more social interaction.
