Beijing expat cliques from Andingmen to Zhongguancun
We may all be “laowai” in the eyes of the locals, but foreigners in Beijing are no monolith. Depending on the hood we live in, the work we do and how we choose to drink to excess, we all seem to have a distinct street ID. Whether you sip bubbly in the Central Bidness District, hug hutongs in Houhai or hold up Half-The-Sky with the taitais in Shunyi, sooner or later everyone belongs to one of the capital’s gangs.

CBD Bloodz

You've seen American Psycho? Meet the Beijing equivalent. Armed with cash, superior Chinese (hell, they probably are Chinese!), limited time and a wicked imagination, these are the guys and dolls you want to have a roof-top pool party with. Bikinis optional, floaty toys mandatory.

Gang Life
You're not born into the Bloodz, you earn your stripes by slaving away in a Beijing cube farm or graduating from an Ivy League school or both. But once you arrive, you celebrate in a fine spray of champagne up until the very minute you get married and become a Shunyi Soccer Mom (or Dad).

Stronghold
You'll find the Bloodz talking party politics and party plans at lounges like Lan Club and Centro, though they aren't above drinking foreign students to their doom at Nanjie. From their redoubt in Jianwai SOHO they plan the New World Order, one Molotov cocktail at a time.

Community Outreach
The Bloodz have bequeathed great things to Beijing. Witty comebacks, Celebrity (the game), Models and Bottles and appreciation for the transvestite shows at Cross Club. Through shell entities on Facebook, they unravel their enemies one well-placed rumor at a time. They are what the Wudaokou Rudeboys secretly aspire to be.

Last Word
“Watch yourself! We put the 'bidness' in the Central Bidness District,” claims ringleader Yan Zhang. Listen up, the Bloodz have be-Spoken! We are tailor-made to run Chaoyang!

Shunyi Soccer Moms

With a doubt Beijing's most misunderstood gang, the Shunyi Soccer Moms are also Beijing's most cosmopolitan, with Swedes, Americans and Hong Kongers in the same gated fortress. They've bounced from posting to posting, lived all over the world, drive cars and bake mean apple pies.

Gang Life
Early to bed, early to rise, these guys organize book clubs and carpools before the sun comes up. They race from coffee mornings to PTA lunches to family dinners on the back patio. Their expat packages are the envy of every hutong hugger and liuxuesheng.

Stronghold
Don't be fooled into thinking it's all about rustic country dinners at The Orchard. Any Saturday night at The Pommy is filled with the smartest people in the world comparing holiday plans, swapping restaurant suggestions and fantasizing about the ideal Sunday brunch.

Community Outreach
The Moms are ALL about community. Whether it's rolling out the Welcome Wagon for new arrivals via monthly International Newcomers Network throwdowns, raising money for schools via bakesales or volunteering with the local PTA, these super-moms are super-involved.

Last Word
“Shunyi's great because there's lots of space for the kids to run around and we're still close to the city. In fact, we go there weekly,” says Shunyi Soccer Mom extraordinaire, Jennifer Sullivan. “Plus, we have the countryside. We have sheep on our street.”

Lucky Street Deep Space Mafia

You'll never see a member of the Deep Space Mafia in the daytime; this gang rules Beijing's nights. Beating a path between China Doll, Tango and White Rabbit, they've cornered the market on glowsticks, cargo pants and Vita-C candy lozenges.

Gang Life
To complete initiation into the Deep Space Mafia, recruits must throw an afterparty AFTER an afterparty. Once in the mafia, life becomes a euphoric haze of dancing and drunken hook-ups, punctuated with an occasional rest on the couch at White Rabbit, Song's VIP lounge or the floor of a KTV room in Tango. You'll see your share of sunrises.

Stronghold
Whether starting the night groovin' to tech house at Tango or sipping champagne at The Beach, the Deep Space Mafia always ends up at White Rabbit. How they manage to stay up all night Thursday through Sunday is an eternal mystery.

Community Outreach
These electronic music acolytes have nurtured Beijing's dance community and helped educate Beijing on the differences between minimal, tech and minimal tech. The Deep Space Mafia doesn't speak fluent Chinese, but can say, “Gei wo yi ping shui” with ease.

Last Word
“For sure, there's no one out at 1 or 2 a.m. That's way too early. But, at 3 a.m., everyone comes out,” says Deep Space Mafia ring leader (and BaiCai operative) Max B. “Just before dawn at The Rabbit, we organizers, DJs, promoters and dancers are a happy family.”

Wudaokou Rudeboys

The shiftless, faceless, semi-washed masses that exist in the shadows beyond the Fourth Ring Road are a well-developed eco-system of liuxuesheng and the Korean girls who love them. Chinese-savvy, they are the glue that holds the foreign and local communities together.

Gang Life
Life for the Rudeboy oscillates between Wudaokou and a BCLU dorm room in a blurry haze of cheap beer, Hanzi and local rock. The leisured pace coupled with intensely unfulfilled desires become fodder for their fondest memories after they move to Sanlitun and finally break that language pledge.

Stronghold
To get into the Rudeboys, you must win Lush trivia night under name “Wu-Tang Clan” or “Horton Hears a Wu.” Afterwards, stumble into Propaganda and try your luck with girls who look very Chinese (but really aren't) and have brothers who'd like nothing more than to beat you up.

Community Outreach
The Rudeboys have given much to Beijing. Behind every be-suited CBD Blood and shivering-in-the hutong Latin King is a former Rudeboy. They know whether Guai Li or Snapline is the hotter band right now and are the only expat gang in town to sport cool haircuts.

Last Word
“If your idea of weekend fun is anything other than Propaganda or KTV, you have to brave the Xizhimen ordeal,” says Rudeboy Wang Yang. “Still, I like the laid-back attitude and unpretentiousness of WDK.”

Houhai Latin Kings

The hutong-hugging Latin Kings may look like a bunch of trust-fund Dharma Bums, but they will straight up spit chengyu in your face if you cross into their turf. They own the tones and correct whack Mandarin pronunciation faster than you can say, “Will Translate for Food.”

Gang Life
Obtuse, abstruse, the Latin Kings huddle themselves in rapt discussion of rendering the term “douchebag” into contemporary, colloquial Chinese. The rest of the time they gossip energetically about Chinese writers and East Asian Studies professors at Ivy League schools.

Stronghold
Cloistered deep in the labyrinth of the hutongs, the Latin Kings occasionally pop up for a latte in Nanluoguxiang. Try Xiaoxin's Café on a brisk morning to spot the elusive Latin King. Or laugh at them as you whiz past them in a cab as they lumber along on a vintage Flying Pigeon bike.

Community Outreach
Caught in limbo somewhere between the Ivory Tower and a foreign correspondent posting, the Latin Kings are the guys and gals who write China books that we actually like to read. We know them only through their mellifluous prose and the legends which trail in their wake.

Last Word
The siheyuan-dwelling Latin Kings have particular disdain for anyone on the east side of the tracks. “朝阳, huh? You know, in Baxter's reconstruction of Middle Chinese, that was pronounced /*asshole/," declares king of the Latin Kings Brendan O'Kane.

by Jonathan Haagen