Karaoke:

China is Karaoke mad. You’ll see all kinds of flashing neon lights lining the streets at night. Often these are Karaoke (or ‘KTV’) bars with a host of private rooms. Huge karaoke complexes with computerised song terminals or small, grotty KTV bars, litter the streets of all areas in all cities and towns. In Beijing and Shanghai and other major cities the price can include drinks and food as well as have a long list of English language songs. Be wary that many familiar song titles are actually performed by Chinese artists and therefore aren’t the songs you may think they are! Chinese friends will probably invite you to one of these bars for many hours of singing and drinking – even if you try to communicate that you don’t like karaoke. If you do go, expect plenty of pressure to sing several well-known English language songs, which they’ll love to hear.