China is a vast, final frontier for foreign luxury brands – particularly for European brands. To build their image for the future, many of these companies are entering China while it is growing wealthy to be in a position to capitalize on their image once the consumer base grows. Land and staffing costs are much cheaper in China than in other cities in the world, and luxury brands are investing in their future by establishing a high-profile presence in Mainland China now.

I actually was not familiar with the British brand DAKS before I d.j.ed their party in Beijing. My friends from England were familiar with the brand, but I guess since they didn’t have a shop in N.Y., I just wasn’t aware of them.

The location they chose for their party was far away from the center of the city. The time that they chose was also a little strange because it was right after work. If you were working in the city you would have to leave your office, head out to the party, and then most likely head back into the city again. Slightly out of the way.

I had a day off in between the Ferragamo show and a show for the U.K. brand DAKS. I spend my time in Beijing just like H.K. – I go from neighborhood to neighborhood checking things out. One difference between H.K. is that taxis are cheap in Beijing. The only catch is that traffic can be terrible, and taxi drivers don’t know the city very well.

After sleeping late I grabbed lunch by myself at Peter’s Tex-Mex, the burrito spot in Jianguomen. Afterwards I walked up to Ritan Park and met up with some friends and checked out a sound installation by Brian Eno (who was present and gave a talk). Afterwards I bounced around Beijing checking out some areas that I had discovered in previous trips to the city. I ended up taking the subway out to a shopping area called Xin Jie Kou. It’s a several mile long strip of small shops selling DVDs, sneakers, musical instruments and trendy clothing – my type of place! If you follow it all the way down it spills into another shopping area called Xidan that has large malls filled with small shops. I just started my browsing when I got a call from my friend Coco Monkey. I met up with her back in Sanlitun, and then met up with Jerry Chan from That’s Beijing. After dinner we rolled over to a bar in Sanlitun and my friend Denise played bartender and made us all drinks.

My last posts didn’t have any details about my Beijing trip. The first party I was to spin was for Ferragamo in The Forbidden City. D.J.ing in The Forbidden City was DOPE! Ferragamo couldn’t have selected a more legendary location. The first thing you notice as you approach are the massive walls which surround the compound. The second thing I noticed was the red carpet – the longest I’ve ever seen, that was layed out at least a quarter of a mile long. Everything is bigger in China. It’s cheaper to make things, land is more plentiful (than Hong Kong) and there are massive numbers of people, which leads to having 50 bartenders at a party, and whole squads of workers to construct things.

When I got to the D.J. booth I set up my system (I ended up using Scratch Live). With a few hours before the event was to start, I took a little break to check out the party area.

After walking along the beginning of the red carpet, guests would enter through a massive set of doors and be greeted by the organizers. Once through the gate they would cross a small bridge and walk up a staircase to enter into the main courtyard. One side of the courtyard featured three walls of huge video screens.

As night came, guests started to arrive and fill up the courtyard. Two large champagne bars were located on either end. The video screens were looping a cool Ferragamo video that showed the origin and history of the brand. There were two musical performances – one by a group of drummers, and a special video show on the large screens. There was also a star-studded presentation ceremony with Tony Leung Chi Wai, Gigi Leung, Zhang Yimou and several Mainland celebrities. I ended up spinning in between. I played mostly old soul songs that have been sampled by famous Hip Hop tracks. I played lots of Blaxploitation soundtrack music.

After about an hour, the guests were ushered into the hall built for the fashion show. I didn’t get to check out the show, but the area they built was truly impressive. It had to be the longest runway I’ve ever seen.

When the fashion show ended I played some downtempo songs while everyone grabbed one last glass of champagne before heading out. The people that administer the use of the Forbidden City didn’t allow a dance party to take place after the fashion show (as is the norm)!