(Beijing Weekend)
Updated: 2006-07-17 08:59

The chalk greeting on the lintel says it all: "You could slit my throat, and with my last dying breath I'd apologize for bleeding on your shirt." Bars don't come much more down to earth than Pure Girl Bar, with graffiti chalked all over the once baize green walls, a smattering of cheap seating, sunflower strobes, and toilets on a par with the ones at Huang Hua Cheng Great Wall.

Seating outside faces Tongli studios, so you can watch lots of people going somewhere nice, as hustlers shuffle by with the now ubiquitous "What's up?" The upstairs room is opened at six o'clock and usually attracts a mainly African crowd, but faces of different hues are on the increase, because despite the rough and ready nature of this bar, it delivers a charged up atmosphere with just a whiff of urban danger as large African women wind their waist, beer bottle in hand, to dancehall.

Drinks are dirt cheap, but don't forget the law that the likelihood of booze being bootlegged is directly proportionate to its cheapness. The drinks menu itself makes interesting reading: "Ocktails and mixed drinks" are mostly 10 yuan for everything from a Screwdriver to your grandma's favourite, the Snowball. "Chevas Regrul" is 15 yuan, as is a "Pina Colacla." Qingdao is 10 yuan and Corona only 15.

Pure Girl Bar is at its best on Fridays and Saturdays, so if you fancy getting deep down and dirty in a gritty setting, drop in for a beer or two, after all, it's not like you'll be stuck for other places to go if you don't like it, or get muscled out by the bigger boys. Not for the faint hearted.

Tongli
Location: No 0002 opposite Tong Li Studios, Sanlitun Bar Street
Tel: 021-64131209