You did it! You finally got signed up and are starting classes. You’re almost done with your residency registration. But what’s next? You could go to bars, drink Tiger and smoke 中南海 cigarettes all day… Or actually learn the language and culture. Maybe you can work out a bit too. This post goes into methods of learning chinese outside of class and how to live a good life in Nanjing.

Music

If you are a musician, it is illegal to earn money playing music unless you have a work visa.

To my knowledge, The Basement on Shanghai Road is the typical spot for seeing and playing live music.

Piano

If you want to play piano, you have two choices: Find a public piano, or pay money to play in a shop with practice rooms.

For the former, the only public piano I know if is in room 101 of Zeng Xianzi lou, but it is in bad shape (out of tune and sustain petal doesn’t work) and not usually available. The security guard sleeps in an attached room and locks the door whenever he wants to sleep or will inturrupt your playing to stop you.

Working Out

Jogging/Running

It’s hard to run in China during daylight. After 9pm, it’s easy enough to run on sidewalks and moped roads but you will always need to keep an ear out for approaching vehicles or dodge pedestrians.

• Xuanwu Lake: Most parks are too small, crowded, or tranquil to take a run in. Xuanwu lake luckily is a sprawling area that allows for running except on the most busy days. It’s feasible to dodge traffic and run from NJU Gulou Campus to xuanwu lake.
• Track: Most universities have a track which you can use, even if you aren’t a part of that university. Understand that these tracks are extremely multi-use and packed with dances, children stumbling around, people driving RC cars, soccer balls flying at you, photoshoots, and people walking backwards.

Gym

• School Gym: Treadmills
• Outdoor Gyms: There are more “playgrounds” for adults than children. By adults I mean the everpresent outdoor gyms which typically have old people stretching their legs. However using bodyweight, this can be a good workout by using the pullup/chinup bars and various ecersises on the equipment.
• Private Gyms:

Reading Books

NJU’s gulou campus doesn’t have many books or a decent library. I’d recommend against buying too many books since they’re hard to bring back home, but you’ll want to buy a few. Here’s some ways to read:

• Buying books on Taobao. Make sure it’s the right language!
• Bookstore in Xinjiekou TODO
• Pirating books: The government does nothing about piracy in China.

Expat Culture in Gulou

There’s a huge variety of students from various countries. My first class had about 40% koreans, 10% japanese, 25% slavic/russian, 20% european, and 5% North or South American. I would guess that 50% of the students are korean, as there is a large korean population in Nanjing. You’ll find many foreigners around the Nanjing University area, especially on Hankou road.

In terms of groupings, people typically eat with other forigners and form groups based on shared language.

Bars and Clubs

Most expats from western countries would consider going to clubs or bars a good time. There they can meet other expats, speak in their native language, and get drunk to the same pop music they’re used to in their home countries.

Expect the following:

• Communal drinking: Most bars are designed with a group in mind. Chinese people typically only go out alone when they’re looking to pick someone up. Menu items are designed with this mentality, with buckets of bottles, bottles/mixers, and 3L towers of beer. But you should be able to get individual drinks with no problem.
• Stale American pop or world party music you’ve heard for the past 5 years. Every bar and club seem to be playing the same playlists and you’ll grow very familiar with the songs.
• Smoking indoors: If you don’t want to smoke, expect a lot of temptation. Nevertheless you’ll have smoke on your clothes until you wash them.
• Most liquor in clubs is fake and borderline-poison. Most expats I know stick exclusively to beer since they’ve been poisoned before. You know it’s fake liquor if you have a terrible hangover after a bit of alcohol.
• Dirty bathrooms. Not always too bad, but some people are picky.
• Very drunk chinese people, sometimes looking to get into fights. It seems that girls are usually targeted more than guys.
• Sometimes prostitutes. If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.
• Free booze: If you go to bars not often frequented by foreigners, after buying a round you will probably be given some free food or alcohol. All the free booze is fake, but at least the beer isn’t dangerous. Expect the manager to come by the table and get friendly at you to gain face, and deter this by refilling his glass then utalizing your superior foreign liver to outdrink him.
• Bar dice: See this or google it yourself. Otherwise just ask the Chinese people you’re with and they will be more than happy to teach you.

NJU has a lot of bars nearby, mostly aimed at the Chinese. The following are a small selection and mostly focuses on proximity.

• Talking: Best (and only) expat dive bar. Directly south of Zeng Xiani Lou. Tiger beer is 10元 before 2am (“happy hour”) for foreigners. There are tables outside and inside to sit people, but also about 6 bar seats if you want to talk to strangers. Has jaded bartenders, sometimes hostile clientelle, very fake liqour, and not enough seating. One of the worst bar bathrooms I’ve ever seen, but go to the nearby Zeng Xianzi Lou if you’re squeemish. Make sure you get some food from the friendly ‘chuar guy’ selling food on a stick across from it.
• Hellen’s: On Hankou Road to the west of campus across from Bank of Nanjing. No bar, lots of tables, mostly chinese but expat friendly. Has hookahs and beer towers.
• Ellen’s: On Guangzhou road to the south of campus. No bar, tables, mostly chinese but expat friendly. Has hookahs and beer towers.
• Blue Sky: Southwest of campus on Shanghai road. The unofficial expat meeting place for professionals and adults. A very friendly bar with a great owner, good drinks, pool, and refreshingly western music. Truely a community hub and staple of the expat community.
• The Bassment: West of Ellen’s on the corner of Shanghai and Guangzhou road: Has a bar, tables, a dance floor, pool, and live music. This is personally my favorite non-dive bar near NJU.

The 1912 district southeast of campus is the “clubbing district” where people stay up all night to dance and drink. Ellen’s here is the main expat hangout, but the other clubs are lively. I don’t have much experience with clubs but have heard good things about Owl Shelter and Blue Marlin. They are usually made with tables in mind and have stale club music. You can usually smuggle your own drinks into these places.

In the end, my recommendation is not to get caught up in the expat party/club scene too much – You’re trying to learn chinese, right? Besides, if you’re looking to party and go clubbing, Nanjing isn’t really the place to do it. Go to Shanghai instead!

One more thing: There’s a common train of thought that the best bars are to be kept secret from other foreigners. Keep this in mind :)

Professional Groups

There’s always loose organizations of people trying to accomplish goals like “networking” or based on hobbies, but the best way to find these is word of mouth. Ask around, make some conversation, and you’ll eventually have someone add you to a wechat group.