Friday was a special day for our group.  We had decided to re-throw Bryan a 21st birthday party (his was in early May) in China.  We chose our last full night in Nanjing for the celebrations.

Most of the American group (both Dr. Green’s class and Dr. Carpenter’s class) elected to go out, and even some of our Chinese classmates joined us.  We chose a place called Castle Bar that was about a 15-minute walk from our hotel.  It was perfectly situated next to a 24/7 McDonald’s… a dangerous combination.

Expat bars are a funny thing: you don’t realize how many foreigners there are in a city like Nanjing until you go to one.  The bar was filled with people of all ages, many of whom were clearly westerners.  We had found a mixing pot of colors and races in a one-floor club with a dance floor, lounge, pool area, and bar.

‘Here come the Americans’

Our group was large, maybe even a little intimidating.  As soon as we got onto the dance floor we covered at least one-third of it.  Older Chinese men swarmed around the girls, and one even patted my curly hair and asked me if it was real.  Four girls of about our age and of western descent soon joined the party and acted as a distraction for any of the creepy old men who seemed to be bothering our group.

After our group was exhausted from dancing (most of the music was American), we took over a corner of the bar close to the pool table.  We met people from England, Spain, Sweden, Africa, and even our homeland.  Drinks were cheap, which was a refreshing change from Philadelphia club prices.  We danced at the bar, watched pool, and intermingled with the other bar-goers.  One of us even had a little dance off with a native Chinese guy.

After 1:30 our group slowly began to retire back to the hotel.  I waited around to get in on a pool tournament, but the much older crowd running the table kept screwing me out of my turn.  And so after we’d had enough to drink and were finished dancing, networking, and watching pool, we said goodbye to Castle Bar and walked next door to McDonald’s.

McDonald’s isn’t healthy, but it’s undisputably appealing at 3:00am when you’ve you been drinking and dancing all night.  I got chicken nuggets, fries, and an ice cream, and told myself that I would be fasting all day Saturday (didn’t happen).  We wolfed down our food and hopped a taxi back to the hotel.

Taxis are less scary at night when there are no cars, bicycles, people, or other things on the road that can be crashed into.  The taxi ride seemed to be long & complicated.  The driver would randomly stop and point out the window.  About 98% of the time I had no idea what he was pointing at.  I know we’d been drinking, but I’m pretty positive we got into a taxi and not a tour bus.  “Pretty” sure…

We all got home safely after our night of fun in Nanjing.  It was the first real opportunity we’d had to go clubbing in Nanjing, and our group had an amazing time.  The abundance of westerners was sort of comforting, especially since I’ve seen so few westerners in Nanjing.  It was nice to hear people speaking English, and to spend our night in a very diverse and international crowd.

I’ll leave you with a funny story: On Friday evening, after we left the Nanjing Massacre Museum, I left with Bryan and Daneen to return to our hotel.  The rest of the group was going to the Confucius Temple, where we had visited the day before.  So we finally found a green taxi with a driver who was willing to transport some Americans.

There was the usual rollercoaster-like cab ride, including moments of cursing, shrieks, and me commenting “wait, I think he’s driving in the wrong lane.”  But the best part happened on the way to the hotel when the driver randomly stopped alongside a street vendor, and without a word got out of the car to go and buy food.  Dumbfounded, we sat in the taxi, staring at each other and at the driver, who was exchanging money for some food.  Within a couple minutes he returned to the taxi with a bag of food, and without a word he started the car and resumed course.

Could you imagine that happening in Philly?

- Anthony DiFiore

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