China - A Real Beer Wasteland?

Last week I had the privilege to take my third business trip to mainland China. As like the last trip I flew to Shanghai and then on to Suzhou, about two hours by car inland from Shanghai. As with anywhere I travel, I always seek out the best beer I can find. Since I have a passion for British beer I always seek out the western pubs. I was only in Shanghai for one night so I had to make the most of it.

I dragged my work colleagues with me and after some unplanned wandering around due to having veered right when we should have stayed straight away, we gave up and went in to the first western looking pub we could find. I can't recall the name, unfortunately, but we ordered some appetizers and a round of Kilkenny, an Irish beer made by Guinness that is not available in the US. After asking for directions, we headed for the British Bulldog Pub, now just known as Bulldog, I believe. Guinness here for us and I swear even in China it is better tasting than in the US. I'm almost convinced it is watered down in the US. Although I didn't order any, I was very surprised to see bottled beer from Brooklyn Brewery, Rogue Ales and one other that I cannot recall. I am a big fan of beer from both of these breweries but not on this night.

It was then on to O'Malley's Irish Pub, one that I had visited on my last trip over and my favorite place to hang out. I discovered the place last time not really for the beer but because I was looking for a pub showing the rugby. The pub is run by a guy named Tam from Edinburgh and he turned me on to a great shop in Shanghai to get rugby tops very cheap. Here it was more Guinness for most of us, Carlsberg for some. For this trip, that was it. There is, incidentally, a bar across the road from O'Malley's that last trip was a brewpub called The Castle. It is now closed but it appears it is to reopen very soon as a Hofbrauhaus. Also, there are three locations of Paulaner Munchen owned restaurants with locally brewed bier. These are all worth a visit and the German food as well as the beer are great, almost like being in Munich.

I spent the work week in Suzhou, almost a veritable real beer wasteland. For most of the time it was Tsing Tao Chinese beer or, if we were lucky, Carlsberg. There are a few places that have other beers but not many and most are in a questionable area of the city. I won't mention these places but if you'd like to know just drop me an email. Instead, I'd like to mention the pub I adopted as my local, if you can call two visits in six days a local. The pub is quite a distance from where I was staying, hence, the infrequency of further visits. Anyway, the pub is called Garbo's (named for Greta Garbo, the beautiful and famous Hollywood actress who was born in Sweden) in the Suzhou Industrial Park. It is owned and ran by a very colorful and quite friendly guy from Sweden named Lars. It is also probably the only place in Suzhou to get a pint of Murphy's Irish Stout and it sure tasted good! Lars also keeps liquors you likely won't find anywhere else in the city. If you're ever in Suzhou, I'd highly recommend you seek out Garbo's and say "hello" to Lars for me. Suzhou also has a Hofbrauhaus but other than that there's little going from a western style pub/bar perspective. What surprises me most is that there are almost none anywhere near the major hotels - perhaps this is a business opportunity? Suzhou is in the midst of building a subway system that is due to open in 2011. This should be a real boon to this great city.

In closing, this post is a bit delayed for a couple of reasons. First, blogspot websites are blocked in China unless you can find a way through the firewall. I could have done this through my work VPN but this is against company SOP so I avoided it. Also, even though I'm not feeling the jetlag like I have on previous trips to Asia, I'm not yet 100% either so I've been dragging my feet. In summary, I really enjoyed the Guinness and the Murphy's and although I don't think Tsing Tao is necessarily a bad beer, I have a new appreciation for Carlsberg, but only due to the circumstances.

Yours Aye!
Neil