The capital glows with star-studded corporate parties to rival Shanghai
Beijing's rough-edged charm has rarely proved a magnet for the international glitterati. But when US celebrity Paris Hilton visited the mainland last year, she chose glitzy Shanghai, not the nation's Gobi-dusted, smog-ridden capital.
But the Olympics have worked their magic, and Beijing is basking in the glow of also hosting the top names in show business.
Having shelled out millions of dollars to pull in celebrities, sponsors and other party organisers are trying to convince the world Beijing can party with the best of them.
Adidas, the official sportswear sponsor of the Beijing Games, kicked off the Olympics party season with a 'Golden Night' banquet on the eve of the Games that netted a string of famous Olympians, models and actors.
Australian swimmer Ian Thorpe and sprinters Donovan Bailey and Maurice Greene sipped free-flowing champagne with film star Jet Li at the lavish bash, which featured kung fu fighters, acrobatic wrestlers in skin-tight golden Lycra and a revolving floor with still-life models in Greco-Roman costumes painted gold. More than 400 guests attended the six-course banquet, with hundreds more joining the party afterwards, to see a performance by veteran mainland band Tang Dynasty and local, DJ Wordy.
Budweiser - one of the three official beer sponsors with Tsingtao and Yanjing - has taken over the National Agricultural Exhibition Hall with 'Club Bud', a popular apres-ski venue at the 2006 Winter Olympics
Parties are being hosted on alternate days throughout the Games for at least 2,000 people each time. The opening party in the 3,700 square metre space - which features a nightclub, lounge bar and outdoor pool bar - was held in conjunction with MTV China and attended by former Friends star David Schwimmer and Hollywood actor Chris Tucker.
'We didn't want to do anything stuffy and corporate,' said Tony Ponturo, a vice-president of Anheuser-Busch, explaining why the company decided to throw parties rather than set up a traditional corporate pavilion at the Olympic Green. 'We felt it was better for us to have our own space.'
On Sunday night, the club was filled with Budweiser-slurping athletes making up for weeks of zero-alcohol intake - the outdoor pool bar was dominated by herculean Australian swimmers dancing to Balearic beats in shorts and flip-flops.
In the Buddha-themed lounge bar, champion US rowers wandered around with gold medals dangling from their necks, while nine-time Olympic gold medallist Carl Lewis and former world heavyweight boxing champion Evander Holyfield helped notch up the star quotient.
But the gold medal in schmoozing goes to Beijing's largest and funkiest property developer, SOHO China, which held a night of star-gazing for 'movers and shakers' at a rustic spot on the Great Wall, an hour's drive from the capital.
Hosts Pan Shiyi and Zhang Xin , the starriest couple in mainland business, invited 1,000 guests to the Commune Club, which sits amid a collection of exquisite modernist buildings in the shadow of the Great Wall and doubles as a gallery for contemporary Chinese art.
Guests, including media mogul Rupert Murdoch and his mainland wife Wendi Deng, were greeted by samba drummers and treated to champagne and sushi hors d'oeuvres, with a barbecue serving Peking roast duck and suckling pig.
Japanese football star Hidetoshi Nakata caused a stir among female party-goers, among whom was New York fashion designer Vivienne Tam. US music legend Quincy Jones and Hong Kong movie star Maggie Cheung Man-yuk were also on hand.
The Shanghainese will never admit it, but Beijing might be on the verge of global cool.
