Win Tickets! Suzie's Turns Nine This Friday

Iain Shaw | Oct 13, 2011 4:00 pm | 13 comments | 4990 reads

While we're focusing much of our attention on the Beijinger's Tenth Anniversary Party on Saturday, another long-running Beijing institution is celebrating a birthday of its own on Friday night. Chaoyang Park West Gate veteran Suzie Wong's (or The World of Suzie Wong, to give the club its actual name) hosts its ninth birthday party on October 14, and we've got a few tickets to give away!

We'll get to that in a minute. Firstly, since we began trawling our archives for our tenth anniversary issue, we've uncovered tons of old reviews of bars and restaurants that are still open (as well as many more that have long since departed to the great bar street in the sky). So here, from our June 2002 issue, is our first review of Suzie Wong's, back when the bar was just a single-floor lounge (the lower level came a few years later) ...

"Elegant, stylish and modern, Suzie Wong is part 1930s Shanghai opium den and part postmodern lounge. Filled with private, curtained U-shaped rooms, the venue has two levels of open seating under a soaring raised ceiling that overlooks handsome antique furniture. Posters of the 1960s movie from which the bar gets its name adorn the walls. Arrive early to put your feet up and relax on the Ming Dynasty bed - complete with a golden mattress and cylindrical red silk flanking cushions. The bar also has something most places in Beijing lack: a blender. Large-sized mixed drinks - featuring daiquiris and the 'pineapplicious' Lights of Havana - are RMB 25-30, and beers range from RMB 15-25."

The least you can say is that we would no longer be impressed by a bar simply because it owns a blender.

Right, let's get these tickets out. To win one pass (good for two people) to Suzie Wong's anniversary party and VIP cocktail reception on Friday, leave a comment below telling us: What's your favorite "World of ...."?

I'll get things started with my nomination, Chessington World of Adventures. Never been, just thought it sounded good when I was a kid. Drop a comment below and you're in with a shout of winning!

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Iain S's picture Iain S Submitted by Guest on Tue, 10/18/2011 - 14:14

Lynxlynx,

The winners were all informed by email prior to the event.

We should have announced the winners publicly sooner than we have - this is something we'll be doing routinely on every competition we run as of now.

The Cleaver Quarterly: A new print magazine taking a playful look at Chinese food as a global phenomenon. Issue 1 out May 2014

thecleaverquarterly.com

JLin's picture JLin Submitted by Guest on Fri, 10/14/2011 - 00:45

since not all are doing "world of..." standard format:

1. Meta World Peace
Ron Artest is a man of greatness
http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2011/06/23/ron-artest-changing-legal-name-to-metta-world-peace/

2. Wizarding World of Harry Potter
easy choice

3. World of Twighlight
Less important than Harry, but maybe more popular in China

4. Dinosaur World
A wicked awesome theme park in Florida were you camp with dinosaurs. Mostly real dinosaurs, but a few are fake.

...I want these tickets. Please.

MBAxuesheng's picture MBAxuesheng Submitted by Guest on Thu, 10/13/2011 - 18:02

Hands down the best world that ever existed, or will ever exist, is "The Busy World of Richard Scarry"!

I learned all of life's lessons through those books but even more importantly....how to succeed and deal with the stress that comes with living in the busy world that is Beijing!

The "Busy World of Richard Scarry" was so wonderful that they turned into a TV series, a list of episodes which can be found on wikipedia and conveniently available on Youtube. Some of the most relevant to Beijing, you ask?

Episode 7 "The Snowstorm; Professor Dig and His Egyptian Mummy; The Treasure Hunt" April 17, 1994

A big snowstorm causes havoc in Busytown, Professor Dig has an Egyptian mummy which he mistakes as a beautiful woman when his glasses are lost, and a treasure hunt takes place in Busytown.

Episode 16 "Captain Willy and the Pirates; Flying Noodles; Roughing It" Spring 1995

Captain Willy is put ashore by pie-rats and attempts to get his boat back, Cucumber and Pickles solve the mystery of flying noodles in Japan, and the Cat Family has a camping adventure.

Enjoy!

Jerry's picture Jerry Submitted by Guest on Thu, 10/13/2011 - 17:05

You could count the bars that served a decent cocktail on one hand back in those days - Beijing's come a long way - but erm, yeah - that was an odd editorial choice of wording, not sure what I was thinking.

Stretching the rules a bit, but here's mine: World B. Free

Jerry Chan, Digital Marketing & Content Strategy Director

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