With more than six weeks to go until Christmas, I spotted my first Christmas Tree of the season out the front of Sci Tech Plaza early last week. Later in the week I noticed that decorations are going up out the front of the Beijing Hotel on Chang'an Dajie too. For those who like to plan ahead, IKEA have plenty of decorations on sale, you can also take at this post from last year about where to start looking for your own Christmas decorations.

Links and Sources
The Beijinger: Where to buy Christmas trees

For most Chinese youth, today's date has nothing to do with a far-away war that ended 90 years ago. In recent years, the repetition of the digit 1 in 11/11 has been taken by many as a good enough as an excuse as any to celebrate Single's Day or 光棍节 Guanggun Jie. To mark the occasion, various speed and blind dating events will be taking place across town while other singles will use the day to display their pride in their singledom.

Halloween isn’t all fun and games, it’s also tricks and treats, and you’re in for a treat if you are in the city this weekend. Whether you go as Sherlock Holmes or Dracula you can count on capers galore all around town.

Costumes, and costume contests, are the order of the day for those willing to let their inner-child out. Bling are top of the contest pile as they are offering RMB 5,000 to the best-dressed party-goer at their event. It’s free to get in so what do you have to lose?

This Friday is Halloween meaning you only have four days to get to work on a costume that could win you thousands of kuai and other great prizes at the huge range of Halloween-themed parties going on around town next weekend. China is a wonderland for those with a fetish for dressing up. If you’re feeling creative, any market and RMB 50 should suffice. If you need a bit more direction, we’ve compiled a list of some of the best places to go shopping for that prize-winning costume:

Alien Street Market
Laofanjie Shichang, Yabao Lu (south of Fulllink Plaza), Chaoyang District.
老番街市场, 朝阳区雅宝路

Beijing Wantong Market
2 Fuchengmenwai Dajie, Xicheng District. (6804 6283)
北京万通批发市场地址：阜成门外大街2号

After having been rescheduled about seventy four times (not true), when we first heard that the Nanluogu Xiang Street Festival was slated to take place this weekend, we took the news with a pinch of salt. But, finally, it appears that a Beijing festival will go ahead as planned and that the NLGX Festival is indeed going to get under way tomorrow. The festivities will also flow on over into Saturday.

We’re going to keep details fairly sketchy, partly because they’re a little thin on the ground, but from what we can gather together:

Head over to the Beijinger Gallery to view images from some of the best events that took place in Beijing over the October holidays. We've just uploaded pics from the NO+CH 2008 Festival, Air's performances at Yugong Yishan and Acupuncture's First Anniversary Party at Star Live.

The jury is still out on this year’s Modern Sky Festival, while some have complained about the indoor stages, lack of food options and drinks running out on the first day, others have raved about great performances from Carsick Cars and Top Floor Circus. The Shanghai outfit lived up to their name by bringing along a circus of sorts, complete with clowns and dancing girls, for their final act-performance on the last day of the festival. However, the real highlight of their show was their performance of Shanghai Huanying Ni, their spoof on one of the Beijing Olympic anthems that we’ve all been hearing on a loop for the past 12 months.

The Modern Sky Festival will begin under bluish skies later this afternoon. Due to the many complications that this Olympic year has presented for organizers of live music shows, there’ll only be three stages (last year there were four), two of which - the ROCKR (3pm-midnight) and Electric stage (4pm-4am) - will be located inside the Haidian Park exhibition hall. The main outdoor stage (daily 1.30-9.30pm) will be set up in the square to the west of the exhibition hall. Limited though the roster may be this year (no international acts), some of Beijing's finest will still be in attendance; including Subs, Re-TROS, Joyside, Ourselves Beside Me, New Pants and veterans like Zhang Chu and He Yong. Highlights of the first day include Queen Sea Big Shark (Houhai Sharks) - see video below - and Zhou Yunpeng who'll take to the Main and ROCKR stages respectively at around 7pm. For a full roster of bands and DJs, complete schedule and ticket information, visit this useful intro to the festival over at Rock in China or the official site. RMB 60/day.
1.30pm-midnight. Haidian Park (6285 0282)

The mess that is this year’s Midi festival continues to unravel with a further announcement on the school’s BBS on Thursday to the effect that the venue and date have been altered yet again. According to the post, the festival can no longer be held in Haidian Park and has thus been moved to the Midi School. The festival will now take place from Oct 1 to Oct 5. The crowd will be limited to 4-5,000 people.

Details about the line up remain unclear. For updates keep an eye on the Rock in China Midi page.

According to the post on the school's BBS:

It’s the 18th annual Qingdao Beer Festival and everyone’s on an Olympic high. The Fuwas will be there to let off a bit of pent up tension and discuss career moves with their weird cousin Haha Beer. Who knows what other mascots you might bump in to.

Officially ranked as one of the top 10 festivals in China, the drinking got underway last Friday and will extend to the end of the National Day Holidays. Last weekend was the biggest opening weekend the festival has ever seen with 180,000 people knocking back 66 tons of beer on opening night alone.

Festivities are taking place at the International Beer City and the very keen can enter from 9am. Keep reading below for more details of how to get there.