KTV in Beijing – David’s Birthday Party at Cashbox Partyworld

I turned 26 a few days ago, so I decided to throw a massive KTV party (by my records) for about 12 friends or so. Two couldn’t make it, but the room was already crammed with ten maniacal singers. The first song, of course, was Happy Birthday, but after that, we jumped into songs in Mandarin, Cantonese, Taiwanese Minnan and English. A kind of hidden reminder that the Birthday Boy knew ten languages… My favorites for the night were songs from Stefanie Sun (孙燕姿).

As you probably know, Karaoke, or KTV, is the rage in China. The rage started back in the 1990s and since then, a great many KTV stores have sprung up on both sides of the Straits — both on the mainland and in Taiwan. KTV itself is part of what must be modern Chinese culture — or at least “post-work culture”; there’s no better way to wind down after a day of super-loaded work than to yell it out in front of the microphone!

We went into what was probably the best KTV chain store — Taiwan’s Cashbox Partyworld (Qiangui, 钱柜), and also one of the earliest Cashbox Partyworlds in Beijing — in the Chaowai area just off Chaoyangmen Outer Avenue. The name is especially appropriate: the KTV store was a virtual cash box, charging you all-the-more-exorbitant rates. I paid the hourly fees, sparing the gang of utter, total and complete bankruptcy; I can say that this was not cheap. Those Taiwanese probably know how to make money the best: El Cheapo rates during daytime hours, rocket-ish prices at night. Sing along during the daytime; it’s cheap to the tune of around CNY 38 per person. Come in at night, and you start off in three-digit territory already! Charges are either per hour (which may not include the buffet) or come in brackets of up to three hours (with the food included).

In terms of the food, they’ve all-you-can-eat buffet, but charges don’t come cheap: when we got in at around 20:00, they wanted every person coming in to pay a charge of around CNY 100 for an all-you-can-eat buffet, plus a smaller surcharge for 3 hours of yodelling rights. During the daytime, however, prices drop back to more flatland levels. They used to have it so that the buffet stopped at 20:30, but our previous attempts at filling up food and drinks with even — get this — bowls — got these people rethinking their policy (or I guess that would have been the case), and now the buffet is open until 02:00. Being a Chinese-and-Western food hybrid, yours truly prefers fried rice and Fanta, but for the rest, the food is equally delicious.

On the big screen itself was the song and the music TV. The MTV bit, by the way, is interesting: recently, Chinese copyright authorities have started a crackdown on illegal or pirated MTVs. You’ll know which is a pirated MTV, by the way: if what you see are scenes from Switzerland and a flute accompaniment, it’s most probably a fake. If what you see are people dancing and pulling out those impossible-to-mimic movements (and if the text is in traditional Chinese), it’s probably the real thing. There’s still a bit of controversy boiling over who gets to pay the copyright fees, but out of all the KTV joints, Cashbox Partyworld’s slate is easily the cleanest.

KTV is big in China — and at that, singing, too. Many a corporate party incorporates karaoke (the Beijing Macintosh User Group does this nearly every year), and people singing or humming songs when the spirit moves them are a regular sight in the streets of Beijing. (Nobody looks at them funnily, by the way; everyone’s into the singing mania.) Chinese KTV events can be pretty big; parties with 10+ or even 20+ people are not unheard-of. The Chaowai Cashbox Partyworld store has a lot of “small-ish” rooms that hold five to eight people (we managed to squeeze in ten without any casualties of any degree or magnitude), and I’ve heard rumors there are bigger rooms on the first floor that hold up to 20 people and have an added treat — wireless microphones. Most KTV places are full of private rooms; rarer is the format where you sing in front of an entire audience.

By the way — I had a great birthday bash. The room was sometimes filled with the loudest yelling the eardrums could tolerate, but everyone had loads of fun.

If you want to join in, head up to the next Cashbox Partyworld — there are four in Beijing so far. Those are on:

• Chaowai store: Union Plaza, Chaowai South Street just south of Chaoyangmen Outer Avenue (朝外店, 朝外地区朝外南街)
• Shouti store: Southeastern corner of Baishi New Bridge (首体店, 白石新桥东南角)
• Yonghegong store: Southeast of Yonghegong Bridge (雍和宫店, 雍和宫桥东南角)
• Huixin store: Huixin East Street, just south of Huixin East Bridge (惠新店, 惠新东街以南)

All KTV stores close by 02:00 according to a recent government decree — which was kind of unpopular for those used to yodelling through the night. But hey, we all need that bit of rest, don’t we?