Come long with me on my first Big Night Out in China!
This video was produced when I first moved to China in August 2016. Fresh off the boat (ferry), I took on Zhongshan by night Alone and inexperienced, I ended up having quite the adventure.
Transcription:
Hi there! This is Anthea Palmer from One Woman in China.
First night in Zhongshan City, Guangdong Province, China
In this video I’m going to take you through my first night in Zhongshan city.
We arrived on mainland China on a Thursday night, which was the 21st of August (2016), and on the Friday night, after being in mainland China for 24 hours, I decided to go out on the town . by myself.
Graham ended up having to go to a business dinner, and I thought “stuff it!” I’m not going to stay home by myself the first Friday night in China. I was dying to go out.
Delta Bridges Guide – Bible for Foreigners
So I looked up the “Delta Bridges Guide,” it’s like the bible for foreigners. It has a list of placed to go, to eat, and a list of services. As well as being in English, it includes the Chinese characters which means if you’re trying to get around, you can show taxi drivers the characters for where you want to go.
I looked up where to see some live music, and found a place called “ViVi Bar.” It’s located at the Sheraton in Zhongshan city, so I thought that should be easy to find.
Went out the street, found a taxi, pointed at the book and got to the Sheraton.
Miu Miu and Vivi Bar at the Sheraton, Zhongshan
ViVi is just one Bar within the Sheraton area. There’s also Miu Miu, a big KTV bar,
and the lobby bar at the Sheraton.
Outside Miu Miu, strangely, there’s a female DJ outside, along with a big inflatable pool outside in what is essentially a car park. Nobody in the pool at this stage.
I went into ViVi, which I thought would be a live music venue. Turns out to be a lone DJ on a pedestal playing some pretty cool tunes….I must say. It’s a very nice bar, but dark inside so my footage might not do it justice. It’s what I would refer to as a night club. I have been told that they do have some live music there, but it starts later after midnight.
After a drink at ViVi I wondered into the lobby bar at the Sheraton where they do a lovely margarita. I sank a few “margies” and met an American businessman there, we had a long conversation about business generally. He was a lovely chap.
I told him what I want to do in China, that I’m here to open a live music venue and promote, in particular, Australian Artists in mainland China. He took an interest and told me he could introduce me to someone very influential….which he has done.
I have to be a but “hush hush” about that at the moment because it’s just in the wings, and it wouldn’t be correct of me to give too much information away. I need to keep some intelligence. In future episodes I’m sure you’ll hear more about it.
So I ended up making a fantastic contact in China, with great influence, on my first night!
As I came out of the hotel lobby, the pool was going off! Lots of girls in bathing suits and lots of men with cameras.
Zhongshan City by Night
I also want to show you how pretty China (Zhongshan) is at night. The lights you can see dropping down are all hanging from the trees in the streets. Very pretty. The two buildings you can see in the background are Lihe Plaza and the Hilton Hotel, which are actually 4.8 kilometres away.
Zhongshan is a very pretty city at night.
The Journey back to Kaiyin
Now for the journey home. I had taken a photo of our front gate which shows Chinese characters, and I thought it would tell a taxi driver how to get back to our apartment. Turns out that it doesn’t. It just says “Gate 18” and not much more.
I knew I lived in an area called Kaiyin, and I call it Kaiyin New Town. Given that last part is in English, they didn’t recognise what I was trying to say.
As a result i was dropped off in Kaiyin somewhere. I didn’t know where I was. There was no point asking passers by because very few people speak any English.
I ended up going up to a gate and showing the guard there my photo. He pointed me in the direction and I walked that way….for some time.
Fortunately, I’m not sure if the guard sent a radio message or how it happened, but a very handsome, young guard or policeman, not sure which, pulled up on a motorbike. He signalled for me to get on the back. Of course being China, there were no helmets. Jumped on the back of the bike, having shown him where I wanted to go, and we rode together through the suburb of Kaiyin.
It was a beautiful night, a gorgeous ride, and very funny. He ended up finding my gate for me, and I made it home.
It was a fabulous first night in Zhongshan city, and one that I’ll never forget.
I’m Anthea Palmer and this is One Woman in China.
See you back here very soon!