Talking Pints: Ed Banger, Funk Fever, The House, Hot Pot, Suzie Wong's and Shuangjing Pub Crawl

Here, in a nutshell, is what's going on this weekend:

Friday night sees Acupuncture DJs play upstairs and downstairs at The House, the Funk Fever boys play at Migas, the latest installment of Hot Pot (Lomang has left town, but DJ Wordy is keeping things going) is at Punk, Suzie Wong's hosts its monthly Suzie's Night, and there's hip-hop and more from The Cypher at 2 Kolegas.

On Saturday, The M-Ed Banger Weekend brings electro DJs Vicarious Bliss (see our interview here) and Mr. Flash to Yugong Yishan. There are buy-one-get-one-free mojitos from 7-10pm at Scarlett. Up at The House, electronic scene godfathers Weng Weng and Yang Bing team up for an unmissable after-hours stop-off; and at Destination, Joe Gauthreaux plays house and more.

If you're after trying something new, there are now far more ridiculous propositions than a Shuangjing pub crawl. Start off at Shaungjing's newest venue, The Loop (in the apartments just north of Shuangjing Carrefour on Guangqu Lu). Then grab a taxi and hit up The Brick for a couple of beers or one of Lee's White Russians. Your next stop is about 50m east at Grinders, where the 500ml cans of Zubr are still available for RMB 10. Try some of their food, or if you're really on a budget and can only spend RMB 10 on some cheap dumplings, stop in at the Pacman dumpling restaurant next door. Or, save yourself for Bang! Bang! Pizza, which is another cab ride - unless you really love walking in Beijing in December - over to the west side of Shuangjing Qiao. Stella on tap and well-priced cocktails await you.

In case you haven't already heard, a few changes in Tongli Studio. Bar Blu is back open, for those of you who've been around a few years. Downstairs from there, Le Petit Gourmand is also back, with a new look and a new bar area called "Le Zinc." On the other side of Tongli, Kokomo's new "'Mo Lounge" is worth a look - the guys are also opening Kung Fu Pizza on the third floor of the building in the next couple of weeks.

That's it - have a good weekend.