Monday, Jun. 05, 2006
Given the remorselessness of its wrecking crews, Beijing should not, by rights, be blessed with so enduring a structure as the Icehouse. But then the Icehouse is no ordinary structure. With 1.2-m-thick walls and access through a 20-m-long tunnel, it's more of a bunker—shouldering wars and revolutions, building booms and bulldozers. Lying in the shadow of the Forbidden City, the Icehouse, tel: (86-10) 6522 1389, is today the Chinese capital's best jazz and blues bar. But it gets its name from the fact that it held ice for the imperial family's exclusive use during the Qing dynasty (1644-1911). Every winter, ice was collected from the city moat at Dongzhimen and hauled to the Icehouse, filling the 400-sq-m interior. The walls were sufficiently impervious to the elements for the ice to remain there, unthawed, all year round. But while it was once consecrated to the pleasures of the privileged, the Icehouse is now enjoyed by many. And it's no longer a place to cool off. Instead, weekend nights are smoking hot—thanks to the smoldering licks of resident players Melvin Taylor and the Slack Band. Customers whistle, whoop and clap in cocktail-fuelled bonhomie as the band turns up the heat—and the sounds of bulldozing that seem to accompany every waking hour in modern-day Beijing seem far away indeed.
- Nicole Qu
- Hot licks at Beijing’s Icehouse jazz club
