China Trip I - Night Life

There were a ton of bars right next to the hotel in TEDA. All catering to the foreign businessmen and upper middle class Chinese. Every bar had a cover band to entertain the crowd. The funny thing we found out is that all the bands are from the Philiphines. The bands vary in what talent they have. Some only sing to tracks like karaoke, while others played every instrument in the song. My favorite band was at the Datura Pub within a 2 minute walking distance from the hotel.

Firstly, the singers were hot. Secondly, they had amazing musical talent. The covers of the songs sounded very convincing. They did rock, hip-hop, pop, oldies and some Chinese too. Here's a sample:


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These girls sure knew how to put on a good show. They were rocking the crowd and looked like they were having good fun while performing. They also encouraged the patrons to come up and dance with them.

Did I mention that they were hot:


The cool thing about this band was that every member played at least 3 instruments. The girls (Wenny and Kathy) would rotate and play the drums or the keyboards, while the drummer (Raffy) or the keyboardist (Tony) would rotate and play the guitar or the sax. This offered a variety of voices and musical feel. The band mingled with the crowd during their breaks and we really hit it off with the band. We all became good friends towards the end of the trip.

After I mentioned that I played the sax way back in highschool, they were pushing me to play something with the band. I dont know that much and would have been an embarassament. But Raffy offered to play Careless Whisper, which I've been dying to learn how to play.




Wenny, lost in the moment of a song of the A1 Band at the Datura Pub in TEDA, Tianjin


The A1 Band


Brian dancing with Wenny on stage


Me and Wenny


Anwar (another colleauge) with Tara, singer from another band


Dancing on stage with the singers


The group: Mike, Wenny, Joy, Anwar, me and Tara

Wait, this was supposed to be a business trip? Haha, it was very much - work hard, play hard. We'd be at the factory from 8 am to 7 pm, head back and try and catch happy hour at the hotel, then get some dinner and hit the bars and clubs, coming back around 1 or 2 every night, even during the week. What a great time.