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m3636 · Joined: 25 Apr 2006 Posts: 1

I am presently living and teaching in Nanning - everything is great except for the total lack of interest in the arts (it is a little like an overgrown farming village) - I can't even find a place to listen to live music of any sort (and I don't consider Karaoke live !)
I am wanting to locate to a city that has some sort of music scene, as I am a musician, but don't want to have to move to Beijing or Shanghai unless absolutely necessary.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

grwit · Joined: 20 Apr 2006 Posts: 329 Location: Dagobah

Yes I am a fellow musician.

I live in Suzhou Anhui province. Not Suzhou Jiangsu.

I have made friends with the boys at the local guitar shop. I go there often and play guitar with them. Occasionally they will have a gig somewhere in the city. Last year they had a regular gig at the local bar where we would all go on a friday and saturday night. But the bar has now changed into a nightclub and techno music is all that is played. Thats fine for me I also like electronic music. I make techno songs myself on my computer. I am also friends with the DJ there. So even though my guitar playing mates don't play there anymore I still go every weekend.

My advise to you is to try and find the music instrument shop in town and get to know the people there. They might be able to tell you where to go. Oh and remember this is china - so do not be surprised if they ask you to do a performance for them IF you can find a place to enjoy live music.

I hope this helps.

7969 · Joined: 26 Mar 2003 Posts: 5782 Location: Coastal Guangdong

my first china job was in nanning. i did enjoy my time there but you have to remember its not an entertainment or cultural centre of china. guangxi itself is relatively undeveloped (as is most of southwest china) and most of the population is engaged in farming. consider yourself lucky.... nanning isn't as noisy or as polluted as most other large cities in china. and its close enough to some very beautiful countryside. something i cannot say for my current home in henan.

look around for local musicians. there's one part of nanning where i found plenty of artsy looking things, music college, art stores and so on. cant remember the name of the street, but if you go down chaoyang lu, turn left where it meets minzhu dadao, go straight ahead to the intersection where the pantry (little foreign food shop) is, which is right beside/underneath the museum, (beijing hualian is opposite) turn right at that junction and head south. once you reach the next intersection, one of those roads leading further south takes you to the area i was thinking of. sorry i cant give you the names of the streets, i used to go down there all the time, but that was two years ago. anyway, ask around where the music college in that area is. its not a far walk at all from the intersection where i left you off at. surely you can find someone or something of interest there.

7969