So near, yet so feared: where the action is

The first party I attended in China was held in a cavernous sports hall with a concrete floor and fluorescent-tube lighting. About 40 guests stood stiffly glued to the walls, staring at the token foreigner.

The party ended at 9pm on the dot and the room emptied within seconds. I got the impression that "parties" on the mainland were an unavoidable duty, like study sessions and self-criticism.

How things have changed.

Where mainlanders used to drink alcohol only in restaurants, as an accompaniment to food, they now drink pretty much anywhere and everywhere. They used to go home as soon as they had swallowed their last bite; now they stay up all night, drinking themselves to death the normal way.

But the Chinese are still different from - for example - me, in that they prefer a private room for dinner and, unfortunately, for drinking. Karaoke bars used to be one big common room where everybody could enjoy the terrible caterwauling of drunk people but now they are full of upmarket private booths, in which people can get up to all sorts of things, observed only by their friends.

As a foreigner over the border, you'll soon be dragged into one of these rooms; like gatecrashing in reverse. The atmosphere is often claustrophobic and it's easy to get caught in the melee when fights break out. The music tends to be atrocious.