25 terrific things to do in Beijing this week

Photo: Migas

Your weekly guide to the best of Beijing

Happy Monday, Beijing! With music, films and parties galore, it's shaping up to be another great week. Read on for our top picks.

As well as these highlights, there are many more things to do in Beijing this week: explore, enjoy and don't forget to Instagram us your snaps with #timeoutbeijing or let us know on Facebook what you really enjoyed.

011 Day Party 

Photo: EB Photography

The Bookworm. Sat 31. 1-9pm. 100RMB/60RMB adv

011 Day Party is back with the August edition of good music, awesome people and the good vibes. This month we are hosting a South African style Shisanyama aka Braai (or BBQ as it is known in other countries). And they are bringing you an all-female line-up

Beijing Farmers Market

Photo: Beijing Farmer's Market/WeChat

Sunshine Plaza. Various dates and time. FREE 

Support local Beijing farmers at the roving Beijing Farmer's markets. Browse through their range of organic fresh produce, and local artisanal products including homemade rice wines, wild blueberry juices and ginger candies. 

Café Show China 2019

Photo: Café Show China

China International Exhibition Centre. Fri 30. 9am-2pm. FREE

The Café Show China is an international and professional show, which presents the most diverse coffee options, in Beijing – the city of the highest coffee consumption. It provides a platform for expansion of the Chinese market, sharing global trends and creating higher quality business opportunities. It will allow the partaking in the culture, food and beverage experiences of Asia. More than 360 exhibitors will be presenting products such as coffee, tea, beverages, bakery, desserts and food ingredients.

The Ming and the Manchus: A Walk and Discussion at the Forbidden City

Photo: Beijing by Foot

Forbidden City. Thu 29. 10am-1pm. 300RMB/260RMB 

For nearly 600 years, the emperors of the Ming and Qing Dynasties ruled China from behind the red walls of the Forbidden City. Although the Qing Dynasty ended in 1,912, the imperial legacy continues to influence China’s present and future. This walk considers what life was like for the men and women who lived and worked in the palace. Who built the Forbidden City and why? And who were the eunuchs who performed much of the necessary daily functions for the palace and its inhabitants?

Black Pearl Tasting Menu

Photo: Agua

Agua. Every Mon-Fri. Noon-10.30pm. 498RMB

Agua Spanish Restaurant located on Nali Patio is offering A Black Pearl tasting menu. Drawing inspiration from Spanish culture, history, and ingredients, this seven-course meal features fresh and communal elements to enhance the experience. Featuring Iberian ham, beef consomé, Agua’s seafood paella, a 24-hour confit pork belly with calamari and much more with a desert finale of goat cheese ice cream, vanilla tomato jam and black olive brown.

Happy Hour, Happy Plates

Photo: Mosto

Mosto. Every Sun-Thu. 5.30-7pm. 

Happy Hour, meet Happy Plates. Stop by Mosto for their running weeknight special. Enjoy local beer and house wine pours at 40RMB and selected small sharing plates at 65RMB. Plus, oysters are on special for 38RMB each.

Meatless Mondays

Photo: Slow Boat Brewery

Slow Boat (Dengshikou). Every Mon. 10-12am

It's meatless Mondays at Slow Boat Dengshikou Taproom. Kick off this week in healthy fashion as all veggie burgers (the Grilled Vegan, the vegetarian Dongsi Tofu Burger and the vegetarian Mouring the Morning) and the Thai Vegan Chop Salad are now a buy one get one free with the purchase of any drink. Freshly squeezed juices are also 5RMB off. 

Migas Mercado Afternoon Tea

Photo: Migas

Migas Mercado. Until Aug 31. 2-5pm. FREE

Sip tea, or sparkling wine while overlooking the view of Beijing's CBD at Migas. Afternoon tea is offered at Migas, perfect for afternoon catch-ups with friends or family, from 2 till 5pm daily.

AlienSaid Vol. 2

Photo: 247 Tickets 

MAO Livehouse Wukesong. Wed 28. 8pm-late. 60-100RMB

Dance and raise your glasses to the weekend. Experience the purest Chinese hip-hop with AlienSaid Volume 2. The line-up includes some of the hottest acts from the Chinese rap scene, featuring Xy, BLUSO, Magic Yuan and many more. This is a night you don't want to miss.

Chaos Chaos

Photo: 247 Tickets 

Yue Space. Tue 27. 8.30-10.30pm. 160RMB/120RMB adv

Before recalibrating themselves as the stylish electronic pop act Chaos Chaos, Seattle-born sisters Chloe and Asya Saavedra spent nearly a decade operating as Smoosh, recording three albums, touring the country, playing Lollapalooza, and sharing stages with acts like Death Cab for Cutie, Cat Power, and Sleater-Kinney, all while in their teens.

Eating Music presents Kiefer

Photo: 247 Tickets 

Omni Space. Sat 31. 9pm-late. 160RMB/130RMB adv 

Kiefer is a keyboardist first and foremost, taught to play the blues by his father practically before he could walk. He started producing his own beats at around age twelve, and eventually went on to study under renowned jazz guitarist Kenny Burrell at UCLA’s Jazz Studies program. There, he started to toy with the synergy between the jazz piano he studied and the beats he created outside of school. While his peers performed over live instrumentation, Kiefer produced electronic beats completely free from sampled melodic material or drum breaks. 

The fin.

Photo: The fin/facebook

Omni Space. Fri 30. 9pm-late. 200RMB/160RMB adv

New Noise presents Japanese chill-wave band, The fin., who will return to China after a sold-out tour last year. Kicking off an 11-stop tour in Beijing, the band will be making stops across the country to introduce their new and highly anticipated album, There.

Other Music Presents: the Mu Xiaohu Group

School Live Bar. Tue 27. 9pm-late. FREE

Get your groove on this evening with a night of electronic music presented by 'Other Music!' Providing the aforementioned tunes will be the Mu XiaoHu Group and other special guests

Cad 73 and Friend With Special K

Migas Mercado. Sat 31. 10pm-late. FREE

Cad 73, the music encyclopedia, will get you in the weekend groove on Migas' terrace every Saturday. Joined by music fanatic Special K, they'll be spinning house and make you lose yourself to dance.

Jazz Crates

Migas Mercado. Every Tue. 8pm-late. FREE

Things are getting jazzed up on Tuesday nights. Migas Mercado resident DJ Cad 73 digs deep into his jazz crates for a perfect selection of tunes, including bebop, vocal jazz, soul jazz and more. From 8pm onwards.

Plastic Zoo

Photo: Migas Mercado

Migas Mercado. Fri 30. 10pm-3am. FREE

Beijing DJs Watermelon and Youga bring the animal grooves to Friday's party at Migas. Start the weekend with good energy and fun vibes, coupled with a playlist of jazz, funk, broken beats and house grooves. It's sure to be one evening of plastic pleasure. 

Fast and Furious Presents: Hobbs and Shaw

Photo: Fast and Furious/Universal Pictures

Cinemas around Beijing. Opens Fri 23.

Ever since hulking lawman Hobbs and lawless outcast Shaw first faced off in 2015’s Furious 7, the duo has swapped smack talk and body blows as they’ve tried to take each other down. But when cyber-genetically enhanced anarchist Brixton gains control of an insidious bio-threat that could alter humanity forever these two sworn enemies will have to partner up to bring down the only guy who might be more cold-blooded than themselves.

Shakespeare Drama Screening: The Merchant of Venice

Photo: The Bookworm

The Bookworm. Fri 30. 7.30-10.30pm. 120RMB

Shakespeare’s Globe present their acclaimed production of The Merchant of Venice. Double Olivier and Tony award winner, Jonathan Pryce, tackles the challenging role of the moneylender Shylockin a reprise of what was his first appearance at Shakespeare’s Globe. Welcome to The Bookworm to experience the original Shakespeare drama and unique historic playing.

Papillon The Snow Queen: Mirrorlands

Photo: The Snow Queen/Central Partnership

Cinemas around Beijing. 

After a powerful king nearly loses his family because of the Snow Queen's evil deeds, he finds a way to ban all the magic from the world. All possessors of magical powers are trapped in Mirrorlands. The only one that can stop him and keep the fairytale alive is Gerda. With faith in kindness and friendship, Gerda embarks on a new adventure with the help of trolls, pirates and even the Snow Queen herself.

Yesterday 

Photo: Yesterday/Etalon Film

Cinemas around Beijing. 

There’s a lot that’s mind-bendingly corny about director Danny Boyle and writer Richard Curtis’s Yesterday, a peppy 'what-if?’ musical comedy that imagines a world in which the Beatles never existed. The euphoric, guilt-free fantasia explores a world of one young guitarist whose stardom is made, when the Beatles are mysteriously erased from global cultural memory.

China Opera and Dance Drama Theatre: The Road of Rainbow

NCPA. Thu 29-Fri 30. 7.30-9.30pm. 100-580RMB

China Opera and Dance Drama Theatre is a national level theatre which has extensively toured in many countries across Europe, America, Asia, Africa and Latin America. It contributes to boosting international culture exchanges, such as large-scale musical dance epic The East is Red and the reception of foreign heads of state including the Former US President Bill Clinton.

Notre Dame de Paris

Tianqiao Performing Arts Centre. Until Sep 1. Various time. 880-1,180RMB

Based upon the 1831 novel Notre-Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo (who also wrote the novels behind Les Misérables and The Grinning Man), Notre Dame De Paris features an international ensemble of singers, dancers and acrobats to tell the tale of the hunchbacked cathedral bell-ringer, Quasimodo, and his tragic love for the gypsy, Esmeralda. With unforgettable music composed by Richard Cocciante, and lyrics by Luc Plamondon, Notre Dame De Paris continues to capture imaginations and send hearts soaring around the world.

Beijing Art Expo 2019

Photo: Bejing Art Expo/Wechat

China International Exhibition Centre. Thu 29- Sun 1. 50RMB

Beijing Art Expo has become the vane and barometer of China's art industry. With 22 years of history, the Beijing Art Expo has witnessed the vigorous development of China's contemporary art market, and has become the highest comprehensive, largest and leading figure in China. The art festival takes the trend of art development, building an extensive and efficient communication platform amongst galleries, art institutions and collectors.

Santiago Ribeiro

Photo: Santiago Ribeiro

NAGA. Until Aug 28. FREE

Portuguese surrealist Santiago Ribeiro continues international tour, debuting in Beijing, China. The International Exhibition of Contemporary Art ‘Art Week in China’ will be his next destination after showing his work in Artifact art space in the centre of New York. Artists from various countries take part in the exhibition.

Ways of Seeing

Photo: CHAO Hotel

Chao Hotel. Till Oct 6. 60-80RMB

The exhibition is a gathering of 17 acclaimed individuals and groups of both Chinese and international contemporary artists, including a number of textbook-style works, and many significant works that were first publicly exhibited in China. After more than a year of preparation, this exhibition will be presented from a variety of angles besides the text of the work. To build a deeper visual context, Ways of Seeing puts into question some normative values in contemporary art like monumentality, recency and uniqueness.

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