Belated Beijing Photo Post: In Which Mike Wins an Onstage Drinking Contest

I meant to post this first thing getting back, but somehow didn't do it at all, and then it's like Hey, it's June. So the second-to-last night I was in Beijing (this was like a month and a half ago now), Mike's host mother took us out to a western-Chinese/Central Asian theme restaurant with onstage entertainment, basically a dinner show. (I didn't really catch the specific region or ethnicity involved; I don't believe it's the same area the earthquake struck a few weeks later.) Think of amusement-park-grade participatory fun and games with more beer involved. Here it was that Mike won an onstage drinking contest. If I'm not mistaken, I think this is the first onstage drinking contest that any of us have won. At least for Mike I've got the photographic evidence.

So they put the beer glasses on the floor, and the contestents (Mike and some mostly Chinese businessman types) had to drink through a straw. Mike pretty much rocked this contest, staking a huge early lead and never really looking back. I wasn't sure whether to be more surprised that he can drink this well, or that he can drink this well through a straw.

Pretty impressive, too, considering he'd been fighting off a round of food poisoning not long beforehand.

After he won, his prize was to be blindfolded and sat down in a chair.

He knew what was coming next, actually, since he'd come here with his host mom before. While blindfolded, he was joined onstage by a belly dancer with a snake, who danced around some and then took Mike into her routine.

This is kind of a blurry shot.

Afterward, the MC woman (who spoke in this perky rapid-fire voice, both in Chinese and then a peculiarly uninflected English translation) told Mike he could choose between three prizes, the bottle of wine (blurry, but in the MC's hand), which was supposed to be "good for your sexual health," the snake, or the belly dancer.

I somehow captured in this shot the half-second that Mike was pretending to mull over this question before replying. Naturally they sent him home with the bottle of wine instead, but way to go out trying.

During this whole sequence of events, Mike's host mother was laughing gleefully and constantly motioning to me to take Mike's picture. What can you say about the kid? He's good at everything he tries.