I went to meet with Nick Kingston-Smith in The Local, a bar and grill in the Sanlitun area of Beijing, which sponsors the football team he founded. He was discussing business with the league's director, Gregory Desbuquois from France. I managed to catch up with him as we jumped into a taxi to travel from the pub to the football grounds on a cold autumn day in Beijing. He shared his thoughts on the changing Beijing landscape in the footballing and bar scenes which he has been immersed in.

Nick Kingston-Smith playing in goal for the team he founded, The Rockets, at Dulwich playing fields, Beijing. [Photo by Chris Georgiou / China.org.cn]

 

On coming to and staying in Beijing

Nick Kingston-Smith: When I came to China, I was 28. Before I settled down and committed myself to a career I wanted to work and live in another country. The obvious job for a traveller is to teach English and the most interesting country in Asia for me culturally was China. I was lucky to know someone who worked in a Beijing university. I applied for a job and received an offer. Later, I also met the girl who would become my wife… and, a couple of years later, we had a child. So, all the more reasons to stay – which I hadn't anticipated at all.

[Kingston-Smith met his wife at her bar, Cellar Door, which she had opened and been running for about a year. It was located on Fangjia Hutong, which was, until very recently a well-known bar street and place to chill-out among Beijing residents. The bar had to close due to a hutong restoration program, which led to the closure of many unlicensed or unregulated shops and businesses.]

After my friends introduced me to the bar, I really liked it and would help out here and there whenever I could. Foreigners were the main customers, yet, over the years, perhaps the proportion of Chinese customers increased as the bar became more established and better known. It's mainly a music bar with a broad range of beers – and those things appeal to the expat community who are looking for something different from the Sanlitun model.

The hutongs have radically changed over the past few months. Gulou is still Gulou, however, and expats who are working in Beijing in a range of interesting jobs are still attracted to the area because of its culture, environment and architecture.

Over the years, there was no regulation and bars sprung up everywhere – to the detriment of the lives of some local residents – who found the mixed ad hoc zoning type situation quite disturbing.