So naturally this store front piqued my interest. I was drawn in. Inquiring about the prices in broken Chinese, she responded in reasonably decent English, which prompted me to ask, “Why do you speak such good English?”

Huh?? + *blank stares* = this lady

Oh well, she seemed nice. So essentially we paid 8RMB (a buck and a quarter) per hour to play Xbox 360. We asked what games she had and she brought up the list in the game menu, and there were all sorts of Chinese names and I’m almost positive were all pirated.

“We have WWE!”

“You can play WWE…”

“Do you want to play WWE?”

Okay lady we heard you; you have fake wrestling games.

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So for two hours, we casually brought in beers from the convenience store next door and played outdated video games. (Opposite of the US, BYOB is a policy at every establishment unless otherwise noted.) Having played WWE for a few minutes and realized what a waste of time it was (for us, for the developers, for everyone) I proceed to bring shame to my ’64-’65 Celtics by getting walloped by a young Kobe Bryant.

Then I saw Metal Slug on the Xbox Arcade, and my eyes lit up. Time to be a kid again. Time to remember asking Ma for more quarters to throw at a game you’d never win. And so after an hour or so of mindlessly not being about to run out of lives/continues, it was time to head out.

多少钱? How much?

20RMB.

Good math. 8RMB/hr * 2 people * 2 hours = 20RMB. It’s a wonder they’re still in business.

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Like what you’re reading on China? Check out some other related articles in: The China Chronicles!

 

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