Looking for some fun near your hotel in Beijing? Getting ready to unwind yourself after a busy day? Seeking unique nightlife experience to liven up your stay in Beijing?

Visit Beijing’s Sanlitun Street, where the capital city’s top bars, cafes, restaurants and nightclubs are located.

Even international celebrities, including gold medalist Michael Phelps, movie star Vince Vaughn and soccer star Renaldhino visited the bars here during the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Known as ‘Sanlitun Bar Street’ among locals, this hot nightlife venue lies in the famous embassy area not far from Beijing’s east 3rd Ring Road. Every day as the sun begins to set, foreign tourists, expats, and locals with extra energy to burn overflow this place.

The street consists of two parts: Sanlitun North and Sanlitun South. Sanlitun North is where you will rock until the early hours of the morning. It’s only only a few hundred yards away fromthe 4 star Beijing Taiyue Suites Hotel.

Sanlitun North gathers several dozen bars with tables outside; allowing you to sit down for drink or simply enjoy the street scene. The treat can be comfortable even in Beijing’s sweltering summer, as lush trees keep you out of the sun and allow you to enjoy the cool shade.

With international customers on the rise, many bars here offer liquor and beer, from IPAs to Glenfiddich, coming from around the world. Some even offer drinks from your hometown!

Despite this, many visitors to China fall in love with local draft beers such as Yangjing and Tsingtao, which are palatable and refreshing by anyone’s taste. Prices for these two beers go around 25 RMB (a little over $3 US), expensive by Beijing standards, but still cheaper than back home.

Another prime place for cheap drinksis the bar at the Beijing Avic hotel.

When night falls, bars usually put on stage live performances, and soon the party reaches its climax. Party goers wiggle to the hip beats the band play, bartenders work on exhibition flair, and waitresses weave in and out of the crowds to serve your beers. Although the spirit might be a little different from that back home, but at the height of it, nobody seems to care!

Of course, if you want to keep things quiet and have an intimate conversation with your loved one, there are bars tucked in the alleyways offering just that. The ambience can be cozy and lovely.

You may have a quick dinner here for most bars serve salad, spaghetti, hamburgers, soup and other food. Otherwise, just walk for a few minutes to the Sanlitun South for a more formal treat.

Sanlitun South hosts a few restaurants serving all kinds of south Asian and international cuisines. Ambassadors and diplomats patronize these restaurants a lot, so the food must be good.

Ok, you know the street, now it’s time for you to set out to experience all the fun at firsthandSo here is a little piece of advice: don’t have so much fun that you miss your Great Wall tour the next morning, or drink so much that you can’t get back to your Beijing hotel!

Lao She Teahouse, sitting at the center of Beijing not far from the Hwa Apartment Hotel, is where tourists get a taste of old Beijing life while sitting down for a good cup of tea.

Former U.S. Former U.S president George H. and Jordanian queen Rania.

It, indeed, has much to offer.

The building itself is a Qing dynasty-style loft structure, so the establishment really brings you back in time at your first sight! The waiters are all in ancient outfits, and welcome you in with an old-time greeting that seasoned Beijingers say invoke the feel of old Beijing teahouses.

Despite being called a teahouse, Lao She is more like an entertainment venue, where some of China’s finest traditional performing arts are staged every night. In addition to drinking tea, you can also watch acrobatics, Kung Fu shows, Peking opera, ventriloquism, cross-talk, and the renowned face-changing dance on its third floor.

One of the most welcomed performances is the face-changing dance that originated in Sichuan province. By simply waving his arms and twisting head, a perform can change his mask in less than a second. The top performers can go through up to 30 different masks with the flick of a wrist. Due to difficulty of changing masks faster than the eyes blink, only a small number of artists can perform this old dance today. There are also occasionally such performances around the Haige International Hotel.

Another program that also amazes many is the ‘Han Deng Da Gu.Singers of this art of show don’t sing the way we are familiar with. They mount a holder with a few of burning candles, then sign with the holder in their mouths.

They need to somehow keep the balance of the holder using the muscles in their face, otherwise the candles will fall. Han Deng Da Gu signers of the Lao She Teahouse are all masters. Their sound is so great that without watching the show, you wouldn’t know there is a holder in their mouth. Around China, there are only a very limited number of singers who are able to perform this ancient art because of the difficulty.

But that’s not all they offer at the Lao She teahouse. Here waiters pour tea in a procession that looks more like an acrobatic show. The pot they use to pour tea is pretty bizarre: it has a long spout that can measure up to 1.5 meters. When serving, the waiter tosses the pot around before pouring your tea from the long spout without splashing even a drop. This is a task requiring years of training, and is always met by much applause.

You can also enjoy a variety of Beijing snacks as you enjoy the shows. Lv Da Gun, or rolling donkey, is a dish of glutinous rice balls rolled with bean paste. Millet Much, or Mian Cha in Chinese, is porridge with sesame and peanut butter. Wan Dou Huang is a serving of small bean cakes that is always popular with those sweet tooth.

Prices are reasonable; an average of 50-60 dollars should be enough to cover the fare of the shows, tea and a couple of snacks. The teahouse remains open from 14:00 to 22:00.

The Lao She Teahouse’s location in central Beijing is very convenient, and you can book a Beijing hotel here.