Throwback Thursday: The Halloween Party That Rocked the Subway

Original Joey Knotts theBeijinger

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Throwback Thursday takes a look back into Beijing's past, using our 12-year-strong blog archives as the source for a glance at the weird and wonderful stories of Beijing's days gone by.

As we dip our claws deep into the Beijinger archives this week, reaching past the deposits of peeled grapes and spaghetti, we arrive at a very special Halloween – that of the year two thousand... and THIRTEEN! A very spooky year indeed.

The legends say that the Beijing Subway of seven years ago was a place of anarchy and mayhem, which is precisely why the foreign community of that time was able to achieve what would seem unimaginable today – throw a rockin’ Halloween party on Line 2.

Where better to do the bidding of the Dark Side than deep underground?

And can you blame them? Back then, if you wanted a change from dirty bar street or the old Workers’ Stadium clubs, you had to get creative. Sure, hutong bars were thriving, but could any of them handle a crowd of costumed carnies? And so, a pack of wild party animals set off at Andingmen Station with their aim to circle the track.

From Andingmen and back, the party raged on

In fact, there were two independently organized parties following this route (and, eerily, no one seemed to know who organized them), on Nov 1 and Nov 2. The latter is somewhat better documented, with photos by Siren Song posted on the Beijinger gallery and Video of the night, posted to YouTube by William Wang, though a few pics by Anthony Tao from the first night made it onto ABC News. Thus, we know that the costumes were largely classics: a Minion, a bunny, a phone, Pee-wee Herman, a dinosaur, Mia Wallace and Vincent Vega from Pulp Fiction, and most eye-catching of all, a giant-headed panda. Not the most original cast of characters, but hey, they made the night count with their choice of location.

Partying on the train...

...And on the platform

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There was no one working the train’s bar that night, but prepared partiers simply cracked open the beers (as well as some dubious "soda" bottles) that they had brought along with them. With that, the wildness commenced as attendees jabbered loudly, chanted, sang, and otherwise annoyed would-be peaceful late-night commuters.

Attendees made friends with curious strangers

That is... until the police showed up. They didn’t break up the party, per se, but their presence certainly put a damper on the festivities – at least for a while. Before long, the train was once again loud as could be, and stayed that way until finishing the loop at Andingmen.

"It's a gray area," the officers replied

But no good Halloween story has a happy ending – at least not for everyone. As partiers climbed the stairs to exit the subway, the panda can be seen in Wang’s video being taken away by an officer of the law. “What did you do, panda?” a voice off-camera asks. It’s said that if you visit Andingmen Station on Halloween night, you can still hear screams of the captive panda to this day.

Back to Chengdu with you sir!

And if you’re thinking of holding your own subway costume party, think again. Wearing costumes on the subway was banned the very next year. Not to worry, there are plenty (and we mean plenty) of non-mobile venues that will be happy to host you for this spookiest of days.

Happy Halloween, Beijing!