KTV, mafia, haircuts, and more chinese food

get it while its hot, new pics from the PRC!! ,

But for those of you that don't want to take the few extra clicks to the album and need instant satifaction heres a couple of samples. This is a group of people from the office that went to KTV, basically Karaoke on steroids. The white guy is one of my bosses and his wife.

It really was amazing going to KTV, a true Chinese pastime from what I understand. Basically KTV is Karaoke in your own private room with room service. Now while it does have the reputation as a time for drunken wildness, it should be known that it can be wholesome fun. The place we went had about a hundred rooms, and some were very luxurious. We switched between english and Chinese songs and sang our hearts out, including a duet with my boss of Avril Levine's So Much for my happy ending, good times. Time sure flies when you are having fun, we were singing for over 6hours! Needless to say were were all horse
by the end of the session.

Another fairly popular thing I was able to partake in was Xclub. Now I know it sounds bad but its not what it sounds like. It was basically a very formalized version of the card game Mafia. You all sit around and are dealt fancy cards and assigned roles as either mafia, police or townsperson. Then you are "put to sleep" by putting a mask over your face and loud music is played and the mafia "wake up" and decide by hand gestures who to kill and then go back to sleep. The police then wake up and guess at who the mafia are and the moderator tells them true of false. Then everyone wakes up and everyone attempts to discover the mafia while maintaining anonymity, and each round someone is killed and someone is voted off by the group. The game ends when all the mafia are discovered. It was a good time! And the fact that there was a mix of Chinese and foreigners made it all the more interesting.

I had to include a picture of the mall. Things to notice in the picture are the number of people, KFC, Mcdonalds, and on the right hand side is Wal-Mart, nuts! Its an adventure, but from what I hear Shanghai is the place to be. I was planning a trip to Shanghai but the plans fell through so I am looking for another adventure in the remaining 2 weeks.




I am however planning on taking a trip out to the country-side to balance out all of the city living. I will keep you updated on the happenings on that.

I have also been reading a book called China Road. It is about the travels of a British journalist who travels from Shanghai across the country-side of China basically to Kazakhstan on route 312, written in 2006. I am only 3 chapters in but it has been a great read, with history woven throughout and a current day snapshot of China is it very interesting. I think its so much more powerful reading it while living in China.