Yesterday after 6 p.m. I was ready to head back to my hotel in Zhongshan. A small bar across the street from Shishan Park (狮山公园) had earlier caught my eye due to its setting and name. Especially since the weather was rather nice and they had outdoor seating, I decided to get a single drink there first. Nothing more . . . I still had work to do.
After walking into the Park Pub, I quickly appraised the situation. Sitting at a table were a young woman and two young men. They offered a mostly typical-in-China selection of foreign beers, and nothing particularly excited me. But one young man strongly recommended the Guinness Foreign Extra Stout. 7.5% alcohol was a little stronger than what I was aiming for, but what the heck. I asked the price and the woman told me they were treating.
They didn't offer a reason, and I wondered if they were presuming this was a worthy investment if I ended up buying many more drinks that night. So I made it clear I only wanted one drink and was happy to pay for it.
That wasn't happening. To my surprise, I was soon sitting outside next to a soccer field behind the pub drinking a free Guinness.
A little later, I noticed one of the young men locking the back door to the bar from the outside. He told me they had to go somewhere else for dinner, but that I was welcome to stay out back. He also insisted on leaving me with something more. So my view changed a bit.
After about an hour at the bar I was ready to head elsewhere, even though a soccer match was now underway. Nobody had returned to the bar, so I did my best to clean up and left via an entrance for the field.
With more alcohol in me than planned, I decided to take a walk through the old neighborhoods surrounding Shishan Park. As I approached one intersection I saw a group of men. They shouted, and I immediately realized there was no escaping.
Soon I was been treated to more drinks.
The men were all (or mostly all) from Guangxi and had brought with them a jug of mijiu, a Chinese rice wine, from there. It appeared homemade, and I was intrigued. So although they first poured a glass of beer for me, they were excited I was game to try the mijiu and my drink changed.
Even when the jug of proper mijiu was later emptied, the drinks continued to flow. The man who was the boss of all (or mostly all) the men sometimes bought bottles of Chinese beer but generally bought Blue Girl Beer — a brand popular in Hong Kong — when he decided my glass needed filling.
After I took a photo of my new friends, a woman working at the restaurant, possibly the owner, shrewdly suggested I take one including the front of the restaurant.
A couple of hours, some tasty chicken gizzards, and who knows how many drinks later, I gave them many hearty thanks and finally made my way back to my hotel where I soon went to sleep.
This afternoon I was exploring the same areas around Shishan Park. A man sitting in front of a small convenience store on West Road (西大街) who appeared curious about my photo taking asked if I would take one of him. I happily obliged.
Then he offered me some beer.
This time, I had to turn down the kind offer. I thanked him but explained I still had work to do and that the night before had more that satisfied my desire for beer.
While the experience at the Park Pub was somewhat unusual for me, in a positive way of course, the other two experiences were far more typical. They could be fit into the category of experiences in the past I've categorized as "
Chinese being friendly to a foreigner in China".
And now I have indirectly explained why there wasn't a post here yesterday as planned. My night didn't exactly go the way I had expected.
Thanks to all for the drinks, whether I drank them or not.
