Try this: baseball in a bar

Ever tried hitting a home run after a few pints? Now you can

'I want a brand new house on an episode of Cribs and a bathroom I can play baseball in.' These were just two of the exorbitant requests made by Canadian cultural ambassador and Nickleback frontman Chad Kroeger during their 2006 tour de force, 'Rockstar'. Evident space constraints mean that such baseball-friendly bathrooms remain the stuff of fantasy, but we might just have the bar for you, Chad.

A night out in Wangjing might not sound like the most exciting, but stick with us on this one, because Mays Club is the only bar in Beijing where you can swing a baseball bat without getting arrested. More importantly, the dedicated baseball bar is undeniably fun, regardless of your talent with the bat.

Tucked away on the second floor of a fairly unremarkable shopping centre, it's a petite and dimly lit space, adorned with posters and memorabilia of some of Major League Baseball’s star hitters, but it's the two-laned practice nets that we're excited about. After a true sportsman's warm-up of one cold pint and a plate of fries, we pay 30RMB for an innings of 20 balls, though a six-innings package is available for 150RMB.

We tool up – there's a range of bats, and helmets for the sensible among us – and take turns in the dojo up against our opponent, a robotic pitching machine. To help time your swing, a screening of a real pitcher is projected to its right, and, boy, does she have an arm on her; there’s a choice between the 70 or 90km/h lanes. Most of our team opt for the former.

Our team of batters was largely comprised of Brits and Aussies, more attuned to the subtleties of fancy baseball (or 'cricket', as it's known in the Commonwealth), and struggled with the concept of whacking it into the distant depths of the net. Fortunately, after a few rounds we started to get into the swing of things and all finished up with decent strike rates.

As for the fare, a bottle of Tsingtao will set you back 30RMB, with a range of draught pints starting at 40RMB; two pages of cocktails, plus wine and even smoothies are available, alongside a pretty extensive list of bar snacks and meaty meals. All in all, a long session here won’t be the cheapest, but the experience is a novelty one that’s well worth the trip. Swing and a hit from Mays Club.

To try bar baseball for yourself, hit 'Read more'.

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