The year’s worst stretch of air pollution and a Tuesday night date meant turnout expectations were low for the official Maovember closing party at Paddy O’Shea’s earlier this month. Those expectations were defied as a full house of partiers showed up for a night that included live bands, pies from Two Guys and picklebacks courtesy of a custom-built Jameson bar inside and road hockey with local team The Oilers outside. With the money from the picklebacks and pies and the three-shots-for-rmb50 hockey contest, some rmb4,450 was raised for Maovember.

Tim’s Texas Bar-B-Q held this year’s final Maovember event — let’s call it a ‘hair of the stache’ affair — by hosting a six-hour Texas hold ’em charity tournament. Players each paid rmb500 for a free-flow of drinks, appetizers and barbecue plus the chance to see who best knows how to hold ’em and fold ’em. Halfway through, the top players at each table gathered to decide the winner. Meanwhile, many observers paying rmb500 just to spend an afternoon enjoying beer, mixed drinks, tacos, brisket and more. After the last hand was dealt, some rmb8700 was raised for Maovember.

Q Mex Bar & Grill brought back it’s brain-teasers by holding a second annual Maovember charity quiz. Like last year, the quiz was bilingual and drew over a dozen teams, with even more money raised via a pool tournament and tequila shots. Due to the efforts of co-owners Stefan Schober and Lucy Li, some rmb1696 was raised for Maovember!

About the time the month-long Maovember campaign starts, the weather starts getting chilly in Beijing, sometimes dropping below zero, and few things help fight off that cold like a piping hot mug of mulled wine. For the third year in a row, the shop chain CHEERS used this popular winter drink to support our mission. In 2013, it served mulled wine from one of it’s Sanlitun stores on the final day of our campaign. In 2014, it upped the effort to two stores over several weekends and added a mulled wine drinking game based on the movie The Big Lebowski. And this year, it took things even further by holding a three-day mulled wine marathon in all 15 shops in Beijing. The result: a whopping rmb10,000 donation to Maovember, with the photo below showing the staff celebrating this achievement with owner Claudia Masueger!

Wine aficionados tested their palates during Maovember when they gathered at Cafe de la Poste to see if they could tell French and Chinese wines apart. Each participant paid rmb100, which was donated to charity, and then blind-tasted four pairs of wine, with each including a French and a Chinese pour. There was plenty of discussion and debate — and general agreement that picking wines with labels unseen is no easy task!

The French wines were donated by Cafe de la Poste while the Chinese wines were donated by East Meets West (Chateau Nine Peaks), Torres China / Everwines (Grace Vineyard), 1421 Wines (1421) and Grape Wall of China (Kanaan).

Adding even more fun to the evening, Cafe de la Poste hosted “Office Basket-Bola“. People paid rmb 5 to write their name on a piece of paper, scrunch it up, and then take a shot at the bucket on the bar’s top shelf. Every shot that went in resulted in a prize of a free shot of booze.

All in all, wine, basket-bola and donations totaled rmb1664.8!

Tiki bar Bungalow laughed in winter’s face on November 25 by holding a Magnum P.I. Party to support Maovember. The night’s festivities included limbo dancing and the chance to get lei’d for 20 kuai. The bar also sold shots of Plantation and Santa Teresa at 10 kuai each, all funds to charity, then used the extra stock to rack up more donations after the event. Alex Jennings won a bottle for best costume: she dressed up as both Dobermans — Zeus and Apollo — owned by Higgins, a key character in Magnum P.I., he of mustache legend. Inspired by tiki drinks and one of the best eighties shows, Bungalow raised rmb1495 for Maovember.

Home Plate BBQ hosted the facial hair affair of the season last Saturday. The first-ever Mr Maovember Contest saw plaques awarded in a number of categories, from ‘best styled mustache‘ to ‘best business beard‘. Each contestant took the stage to announce the category in which he was competing and to tell personal facial-hair related stories, whether it was a much-loved ‘stache style or how a celebrity — say, Tom Selleck — had inspired him. Both contestants and observers also enjoyed a range of beverages from Jing-A, Karl Strauss, Kentucky Bourbon Ale and Table & Vine, with proceeds going to charity. When the last award was given and the last Four Pillars G&T, Fireball shot and craft brew consumed, 1880.5 kuai had been raised for Maovember.

 

Sales were swift at Sunday’s Mystery Wine Party as 50 bottles were snapped up in an hour at La Cava. The idea was simple: customers paid rmb100 and picked one of the covered wines on the shelves—each retailing from rmb120 to rmb2000—then tore open the packaging to see what they got. Most people ended up sharing their wines, so it wasn’t surprising the event lasted well beyond it’s scheduled three hours and until the last drop was finished.

More sporting attendees signed up for the Wine Flights Paper Airplane Race. Eleven contestants each paid rmb50 for a flight ticket, carefully designed their craft, then raced for glory—and a bottle of Charles Ellner Champagne—in the hallway outside La Cava.

The Mystery Wine Party and donation spittoon raised rmb5450 while the Paper Airplane Race took in rmb550, for a total of rmb6000. Individual donations covering one of more cataract surgeries, at rmb800 per operation, via charity partner Orbis totaled rmb4000, with Martin Winchell and Alex Jennings leading the way.

Mystery wines were donated by 1421, Australian Natural, Grape Wall of China, La Cava, Le Sommelier International, Pasion, Ponty, Seina and Signature Wine Club.