Friday: Reflector, No Answer at Laowo Bar
Laowo Bar will host Beijing punk trio Reflector (反光镜) tonight for the band's Kunming stop on their autumn tour of western China. Local band No Answer (打死我也不说) will start off the evening at 9:30. Entry is 35 yuan.

Friday: Halloween costume party at Speakeasy Bar
Speakeasy Bar will be holding a costume party with DJs Kris, Martin Solberg, Lumberjack Jon and special guests starting at 10 tonight. Bottles of Red Label, Stolichnaya and Jim Beam will be awarded for the first-, second- and third-place costumes and Mike Shipley will be painting faces for those who come costumeless. Entry is free.

Friday: Halloween costume party at Camel Bar
Camel Bar will hold its Halloween costume party at 9 tonight with a free bottle of vodka for the best costume plus a free bottle of beer for anyone wearing sunglasses. There will also be specially priced 10 yuan shots of tequila and vodka as well as B-52s.

Saturday: Double exhibition opening at TCG Nordica
Two Scandinavian artists will be featured in a double exhibition opening Saturday night at TCG Nordica in the Loft/Chuang Ku art compound on Xiba Lu. Morten Viskum of Norway will unveil his solo exhibition 'Monogram XI' and Madeleine Aleman of Sweden will present her recent works created during her stay in Kunming. The opening starts at 8:00 and entry is free.

Tags: Camel Bar, DJ Kris, Halloween, Lumberjack Jon, Madeleine Aleman, Martin Solberg, Morten Viskum, Speakeasy Bar, TCG Nordica

Friday: Local rock showcase at On The Go
Tonight the new Kundu bar On The Go will host a night of local rock featuring Broken String (断弦), Kou Xuan (口玄), Kua Fu and No Answer (打死我也不说). The free show starts at 9:30. On The Go is located on the second floor of the building across from Top One's main entrance.

Saturday: Children's piano concert at TCG Nordica
TCG Nordica will be holding a children's piano concert Saturday night in conjunction with Beautiful Heart piano training center. The 8 pm show is 5 yuan for children, 15 yuan for adults.

Saturday: Halloween pub crawl
For the second year in a row, a Halloween pub crawl of the Yunda/Wenlin Jie area has been organized, once again starting 8 pm at the Sunshine Bar, about 50 meters south of Yunnan University's north gate. Drink discounts will be available for all costumed revelers at the Sunshine Bar as well as Must Colombian Café (9:00), Salvador's Coffee House (10:00), The Box (11:00) and Chapter One (midnight and onward). The pub crawl is open to anyone with an interest in drinking while in costume.

Tags: Broken String, Halloween, Kou Xuan, Kua Fu, live music, Must Colombian Coffee, No Answer, On The Go, pub crawl, Salvador's Coffee House, Sunshine Bar, TCG Nordica, Wenlin Jie, Yunnan University

This weekend around Kunming there will be flurry of events catering to a variety of tastes - contemporary dance, classical music, yoga, girl rock and pub crawling plus the beginning of monthly no-car days will be some of the highlights of the next 48 hours.

Crossing Festival: Contemporary Dance and Cinema at Yuansheng Studio

Beginning this afternoon, Yuansheng Studio in the Loft/Chuangku art compound will be hosting the Crossing Festival, an annual independent festival promoting the development of China's independent contemporary dance and theater, documentary film and experimental video.

Founded by Caochangdi Workstation (草场地工作站) in Beijing in 2005 and co-organized by Borneoco/CultureXpress in the Netherlands, this is the first time for the Crossing Festival to come to Kunming - the only other stops are in Beijing and Shanghai. Two dance performances presented by Chinese choreographers nunu and Eagle Ho will be accompanied by dance films brought by Janine Dijkmeijer, director of the Dutch international dance film festival CineDans.

Dance performances will take place at Yuansheng Studio Friday and Saturday nights at 8:00 - admission is 20 yuan. Film screenings will take place at Yuansheng Studio Friday afternoon at 2:00, Saturday at 3:00 and Sunday around 2:00 - admission to the film screenings is free.

Kunming launches monthly no-car days

Kunming is the first city in China to adopt monthly no-car days in which private vehicles are not allowed into the city center. Saturday is the first of the city's monthly no-car days, with only buses, taxis, government vehicles and private vehicles with 17 seats or more and a minimum of 50% occupancy allowed within Huancheng Dong Lu, Huancheng Nan Lu, Xichang Lu and Yieryi Dajie. The downtown car ban starts at 9 am and lasts until 7 pm.

Yutao Yoga fifth birthday celebration

Yutao Yoga, Kunming's oldest yoga studio, will be celebrating its fifth birthday Saturday afternoon with events including a retrospective exhibit on the studio's growth, a yoga performance, afternoon tea and a lucky draw. Festivities begin at 2:30 and end at 6:00. Yutao Yoga is located on the fourth floor of the Tianhao Building at Qingnian Lu and Renmin Zhong Lu.

Wenlin Jie area Halloween pub crawl

Starting just after the end of the no-car day at 8:00 Saturday night will be the second Wenlin Jie area Halloween pub crawl. Beginning at the Yunda Sunshine Cafe just outside of the Yunnan University north gate on Yieryi Dajie, the roaming costume party will visit several bars before finishing at Chapter One. All costume-wearing partygoers will receive discounts on beers at each stop and there will be Halloween-themed drinking games.

Classical violin concert at TCG Nordica

Following on the heels of last weekend's packed jazz concert, TCG Nordica will host a classical violin concert featuring Li Qi on Saturday night. Admission to the 8:00 show is 40 yuan.

Girl bands to play Shelter Bar

Two local girl bands will play a free show Saturday night at 9:30 at Shelter Bar (防空洞酒吧). One of the bands - No Answer (打死你也不说) - will be playing next month's Kunming Outdoor Music Festival and will be joined at Shelter by Medusa (美杜莎). After the show, DJ Shuangma and DJ Chengcheng will take the stage.

Tags: Caochangdi Workstation, DJ Chengcheng, DJ Shuangma, girl bands, Halloween, No Answer, no-car days, Yuansheng Studio, Yutao Yoga

For all those people that want to squeeze some Halloween fun into the coming weekend, the second annual Wenlin Jie area pub crawl will take Saturday night at eight o'clock.

Starting at the Yunda Sunshine Cafe just outside of the Yunnan University north gate on Yieryi Dajie, the roaming costume party will visit several bars before finishing at Chapter One. All costume-wearing partygoers will receive discounts on beers at each stop and there will be Halloween-themed drinking games.

Tags: Halloween, Wenlin Jie

The Dungeons and Dragons look was in this year

Halloween weekend in Kunming was surprisingly raucous this year, with a large pub crawl organized by foreign students at Yunnan Normal University on Friday night and a rager at Speakeasy Bar on Saturday night. Thanks to Vesna for the photo.

Tags: Halloween, Speakeasy Bar

Speakeasy Bar will be throwing a Halloween costume party on Saturday night with big bottles of booze for the best-dressed.

Entertainment will be provided by DJs Remy, Delboy and Kris and there will also be face painting. Prizes for the best costume: A bottle of Jack Daniels will be awarded to the first place, a bottle of vodka for second and a bottle of the Speak's house red for third place.

Last year's Halloween party was one of the bigger parties of 2005, this year's should be a big one too. Five days left to think of your costume...

Tags: Halloween, Speakeasy Bar