Out on the town in Shenyang

**Note: If you found this post looking for info about going out in Shenyang you might find my friend's recommendations more helpful here: http://takingtheroadlesstraveledby.blogspot.com/2013/07/nightlife-bars-in-shenyang.html

Most of our staycation was spent playing board games at friends' homes, eating meals with others in the consulate community, or watching movies (friends hosted an all-day Lord of the Rings marathon and R & I have made it through a couple of seasons of Mad Men over the break).

Saturday night started off like many other evenings. We met up with friends in our lobby and headed over to the sichuan restaurant a few blocks away. After dinner though someone threw out the idea of heading to one of Shenyang's "International Night Clubs", and for whatever reason we all decided it was the best idea on the table.

Most of you reading know R is definitely not a night-club person, and I'm only slightly more of a night-club person than he is. I think the main draw for me is the people watching and if I'm with friends, I can't resist dancing with those friends (not with other people). But just the promise of getting to experience a night club WITH R was plenty to get me out the door into the night.

Pure Colour (the name of the club) did not disappoint in the people watching department. While they had a good live band that played a lot of hip hop from the late 90s (high school flashbacks) and some current radio hits, it turns out Chinese people don't really like to dance until they've had too much to drink. We didn't last too much past midnight when the dancing was just barely starting, but I like to think we warmed up the dance floor for them.

Whenever others ask what kind of hobbies I have, I'm tempted to say people watching. The people watching at Pure Colour was intriguing. Let me give you a rundown of the characters we came across throughout the night:

• chinese bartenders: These guys were so cute- they all had faux-hawks, bopped along and sang to every song the band played, and were the only chinese people who looked remotely amused by the entertainment. 
• chinese girls: many wore either a fur coat, something tight & metallic, or black framed glasses without the lenses. Most of them smoked (sort of rare to see women smoking in China). Nearly all of them were on their smart phones (coolpads and a few iphones) on WeChat a new chinese social app like Heytell. Several tables were drinking champagne served to them with a dozen roses, a sparkler and glow in the dark ice, you know, just so everyone would know they were drinking champagne.
• chinese men: The ones that stood out to me (but not in the crowd) were several in sweats. I guess Shenyang doesn't do dress codes because these guys were comfortable dressed in sweat pants and then a zip up hoody sweatshirt with no shirt underneath. Who do they need to impress anyways?
• foreign men without any sense of style: I want to guess that these guys are expat regulars who took their cue from the local chinese guys wearing sweats. They usually had a chinese girl (younger and not a glitzed out as most of the other girls) at their side. 



• euro metrosexual men: Kind of pretty boys in a robert pattinson type of way (but not nearly that good looking). Sort of stayed in a pack and kept to themselves (much like our group). 



• james bond villain look-a-like: Not even kidding. There was a Soviet-looking guy that I was convinced was evilllle, if you know what I mean. Of course R somehow ended up talking to him and finding out he was British (but possibly a double agent?) and here at helicopter flight school. He was not happy about living in shenyang but he was happy about the next segment of club personnel as he videoed them on his phone for 20 minutes. gross.
• ukranian/russian "performers": As I mentioned Pure Colour has a pretty good live band that would play 30-45 minute sets and then take a 30 minute break during which a DJ would take over. I guess to keep people around after the band left the stage these eastern-euoropean dancers (just 2 of them) would come perform. Definitely not a highlight. We found a spot on the wall for this segment of the evening or refreshed our drinks. 
• awkward german dancing girl: I love to dance, believe me I do, but this girl LOVED to dance in front of everyone. When the ukrainians ended their part of the program she jumped up on the speaker and danced like she hadn't danced before. It was kind of like a car crash that you couldn't take your eyes off of. 
• lonely American(?) girl at bar: There was one girl at the bar that I thought looked relatively normal but just a little sad and lonely all by herself. I'm not sure what brings you to shenyang's international night club alone but I hope she was waiting for someone and that they got there soon. 

Before you think all I did was lurk in corners and watch other people, I'll have you know we were well aware that people were watching us as well. Some drunk Chinese guys came up to R and asked him if he knew who Jay Chou was (super popular in mainland China- R did, of course, know who he was), and then told him they were him. I'm getting used to the everyday stares because with light brown hair and green eyes, I all but fit in, but it is nice to be able to stare back every once and a while.

One great thing about pure colour was that we were only 10 minutes from our house and 20 minutes from PJs and a warm bed. So once we'd had enough it wasn't long before an entertaining evening drew to a close. Definitely not how I want to spend most of my weekend nights but I was glad to have gone for the novelty.