And then， more often than not， “gan bei” (干杯) is proclaimed， which literally means “dry glass”， “gan” meaning “dry” and “bei” referring to the glass.
At our first dinner together， when I was still a newcomer in the team， I was introduced and ‘checked’. Gan Bei was successively carried out with each individual， we introduced ourselves to each other. But the beer glasses are small， getting them dry is not a real problem， just two sips and it is done.
Both teams respect if I or anyone else should say： “No more， I’ve had enough.” Sometimes a compromise is found： “Okay， yi ban” (一半， half a glass！). I have never seen any of the players really drunk， not even at the fourth anniversary of the founding of the Lao Niu team. Not even if bai-jiu is served. They respect that I’ll have one glass and no more.
Only once a few friends and I advanced too far： For some reason， four players thought that after dinner we ought to visit yet another place near their residential area. There is a “Seven Eleven”， a shop which officially opens from seven o’clock in the morning until eleven o’clock in the night. I can confirm that (at least then) it was open at least until half past two in the night， for we were constantly able to buy more QingDao beer there (also known as TsingTao).
I really do not know how much I had drunk that night， but judging by the fact that we were still able to kick the ball around on the forecourt， and judging by the further fact that in the middle of the night I could still properly tell the taxi driver the Chinese name of my housing estate， I suppose I was not completely drunk. Pretty well drunk， yes， I admit that much.
It was huge fun. The customers noticed nothing the next day.
In 2005， more than six years ago， the Lao Niu team has found together in a very large settlement， WeiLan HaiAn (蔚蓝海岸). Some 20，000 people are living there in large high-rise buildings combined into four quarter settlements， each of them being centred around a park. That’s more people than in the small town outside of Hamburg where I live in Germany， probably being concentrated on 5% of the area.
In this settlement there are five football teams， sometimes we play against one or another of them. LaoNiu is #4， that is not his performance level but his place in the order of founding and joining the team. Meanwhile， however， only about half of the players still originate from the settlement because one or the other player has moved away (but keeps playing with us) or ceases to play for any other reason， not to mention newbies like me joining from outside.
Tian Long has been created by aid of the Internet forum ‘ShenZhen Sports.’ Here too， the team suffers over the years some fluctuation， but it is amazing to see how stable the teams are in general (even the opponents！). In the last two years， Tian Long has become almost half Korean： There’s a fairly sizeable national minority of Korean ethnicity in China； they are all born there， have grown up and gone to school there. They have Chinese ID cards， speak Chinese and practice some profession here.
Among themselves they speak Korean. It started with one Korean who lives and works in China， and he has gradually added more of his Korea-Chinese friends to the team. All of them are very strong players， the best one is a young man who had even been playing a few years ago in the Chinese national youth team， but there – according to his own words， as far as I understand his Chinese correctly， for he does not speak English – he could not prevail because they would have ultimately only true Han Chinese in the team.
He has also played with the professionals in ShenZhen， but the professional league is not popular in China. It was tainted by corruption and therefore is of no concern to the active football players in China， especially in ShenZhen. None of my fellow players would watch for once a weekend match of the ShenZhen Football Club....
Our Koreans (like many of my friends and I， too) do not only play with us in TianLong only but also in another team， in this case a purely Korean one. We have already played at least against four different Korean teams， even against those where some of our friends participate in. These teams are playing in a way that is completely different from any Chinese team， the Koreans run and fight for 90 minutes， their match strategy mimics that of the Korean national team – run， run， run， fight， never give up.
With the Koreans， our TianLong team got ever better and our Saturday night dinners more colourful and funnier.