Happy America Day: Celebrating the Fourth of July

America’s Independence Day, the Fourth of July, should be a day of BBQ picnics in parks with hot dogs and burgers on the grill, water balloon fights and fireworks, but as this year falls on a Monday, most are stuck in an office for the better part of the day.

But rest assured, there’s still plenty going on and a variety of destination options available to show off your Americanism.

theBeijinger gives a nice run-down of pro-American venues (click here for article) including Saddle Cantina, Kro’s Nest, the Stumble Inn, Blue Frog, the Culture Yard’s Independence Day Cook-Out, and NOLA.

After witnessing the world’s top hot dog eater, Joey Chestnut engulf 39 hot dogs in 5 minutes at the Nathan’s Famous Wanliu Store opening and the China National Hot Dog Eating Championship a few weeks back, my gang of usual suspects we be celebrating this great national holiday by ordering in a couple dozen orders of Nathan’s Famous Chili Cheese dogs and watching Joey Chestnut live on ESPN in action at 11PM Beijing time (actual contest begins at noon New York time, so midnight in Beijing). If you have a VPN or other IP proxy, you can easily watch the contest online at this link here.

Joey Chestnut jammed down 39 hot dogs in his own 5 minute exhibition in Beijing!

To see full article of Nathan’s Famous China National Championship Hot Dog Eating Competition, click here.

To see more images and video footage of Joey Chestnut exploring Beijing, click here.

For all those with a sweet tooth, I recommend ordering some All-American Apple Pie from The Pie House (buy 2 for a 30% discount!) to celebrate!

**Happy Fourth of July!**

From BBQ’s to Parties: Independence Day Weekend

There are so many reasons to love the Fourth of July, even if you’re not American.  Admittedly, I am American and I love the Fourth of July for all reasons unrelated to national pride. Scratch that, I shouldn’t have said that.  I am proud to be an American, but that’s honestly not why I love the Fourth of July.

Fourth of July is a day to BBQ, have a picnic, play in a park, chill out, have water balloon fights, more BBQ and fireworks. I’m sure people of other nationalities would find this combination of activities just as exciting…no?

Anyway, I’m happy to find that Beijing has a lot going on in terms of things to do and ways to celebrate this holiday and not just the Fourth of July, but ALL weekend!

For those who aren’t going all the way out to the Great Wall Beach Party, there’s plenty of parties to hit up right in town – like BLING’s Independence Day Party this Saturday, July 3rd to warm everyone up for Sunday!

Anyone wearing red, white and blue will be rewarded with ‘All-American’ shooters and beer/drink specials all night.

On the actual day of, there will be BBQ’s all over the city.

Breakdown of Fourth of July Festivities:

• AmCham will be celebrating at Ch’ien Men 23 – a day of family-friendly festivities. Tickets available at the AmCham website.
• All-Star Sports Bar & Grill will be hosting a BBQ Cook-out with an all-you-can-eat-BBQ including a salad bar, a variety of cold cuts, our famous baby back ribs, barbequed chicken, beef short ribs, steak kebabs, chicken kebabs, hot dogs and much more for only RMB 138!  12pm- 3pm, 6pm-11pm
• Special Set Menu at Nola: For RMB 135 per person you get: three kabobs (choose from pepper marinated pork with peach and shallot, ribeye steak with potato and mushrooms, shrimp with lime and corn, and/or chicken with tomato, olive, and panzanella), three sides (baked beans, coleslaw, red beans, sweet potato salad, green bean salad, cucumber and tomato salad, green bean casserole, and/or corn maque choux) and dessert (red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting, German chocolate cake, lemon poppy cake, or cupcakes).
• The Apartment’s BBQ & Drinks: 4-10PM. Friends & Flatmates Welcome!
• 2 Kolegas’ Funky Reggae BBQ Party: Serving Funk, Soul, Reggae tunes along with Hamburgers, Hot Dogs, Salad, Tamales (by Texas Tamale Junkies), Cupcakes (by Lollipop Bakery) and Pies (by Pie House).  Starts 3PM, RMB 30 at the door.

• China Doll’s Independence Day Rooftop Party: Live music, Jell-O shots & BBQ. Dress in red, white and blue and get a free drink.

And if you don’t feel up for parties and socializing at all this weekend, then at least indulge yourself in Lollipop Bakery‘s absolutely adorable Fourth of July cupcakes -

Lollipop Bakery’s Red Velvet Cupcakes capped with patriotic red, blue and white frosting – sure to add fireworks to any holiday BBQ! 220RMB per dozen