the Beijinger

Beijing bar scene stalwart Karl Long is set to join Great Leap Brewing on June 1, Great Leap's Carl Setzer and Long confirmed to The Beijinger on Thursday.

Long, who started at Paddy O'Shea's in late 2008, will team up with Great Leap, which won seven awards at The Beijinger 10th Annual Reader Bar & Club Awards, "to do all that stuff I don't know how to do," said Setzer, the surprise winner of the Bar Awards "Personality of the Year," implying Long will handle front-of-the-house.

“The emperor … looked over the fires burning the city. He returned to the Palace of Surpassing Brightness and wrote a ‘Scarlet Edict.’ … Having done this, he called for wine, and when he had drunk several cups, sighed heavily.”

...and thus ended the Ming Dynasty, as described in the imperial archives.

These fires of 1644 were set by Li Zicheng’s rebel army, not errant cigarette butts thrown around by Palace employees. Nonetheless, The Forbidden City is now taking action in order to prevent another ruinous fire.

Welcome to an experimentally early edition of Talking Pints. One event dominates the nightscape this weekend as INTRO 2013 prepares for a reboot at Capital Steel Factory. But this weekend could just as easily be notable for the UEFA Champions League Final which comes around in the wee hours of Sunday morning. Or perhaps you've been waiting on The Warriors event? No? Maybe, like me, you've just been waiting for the Wet T-shirt Contest at Juicy. Whatever the highlight of your weekend is, it's almost here.

So we erm, "revealed" ... just a little after the fact, that Shabazz Palaces will be here in July, and Japandroids will be stopping by in August. This is great news. If you're not into either of them, then you should be. And you can start by checking out their Soundclouds below.

If you were thinking twice about heading out to the Capital Steel Factory in Shijingshan for INTRO on Saturday (May 25), here's a reason to go: We're giving away four pairs of tickets for someone to get their dance on to all that dubstep, drum and bass and trap (see the lineup for the main stage and the bass stage).

Many Beijingers have found a temporary solution to the problem of finding taxis via the Didi Dache or Yaoyao Zhaoche apps available for various smartphones. While Beijing's municipal government continues to discuss taxi reforms, such as a higher flag fall, another major Chinese city has already taken action to ensure that those apps won't be part of the solution there.

Yesterday, we gave you the main stage lineup. Now, here's the Syndicate's bass stage lineup for INTRO 2013. Last year, this dubstep and drum and bass pit was the wildest spot at the festival. The kids were hoppin', sweaty and slathered in body paint. Expect more of that madness this year.

Let’s face it, everyone wants to be healthy but no one wants to be the annoying one pulling celery sticks out of Tupperware boxes (or stuck with the prep work of rinsing, paring and chopping). But Quickie Salad, with an exciting assortment of fresh leaves, legumes, fruits, nuts and protein, will happily play the role of “health nut” and do all the work for you.

If you use WeChat (or Weixin, if that's what you call it), Tencent's hugely popular chat app, you'll be happy to learn we recently launched the Beijinger's very own official account. So what do we plan to do with WeChat? We'll tell you in a minute. First, you know what to do with that QR code (if you're using WeChat already, the QR code scan function is built into the "add contacts" page). Scan it now and join our WeChat community.