The beneficiary of tomorrow's Chug-Off for Charity at the new Great Leap Brewing is Magic Hospital, a 10-year-old organization based in Beijing that organizes activities to cheer up sick, orphaned, abused, and generally neglected children. They're a wonderful foundation, and to tell you more about it, here's Lesley Sheppard, Magic Hospital's volunteer communications director.

Badr Benjelloun -- Beijing Daze curator, IT captain at True Run media, ESL forum operator, former Tangshan teacher, capoeira practitioner, guy who does business on the side, cook, and owner of the best rum bar / Moroccon eatery in Beijing, Cu Ju -- is... um... sorry, we lost our train of thought. Badr does a lot around Beijing. We're very happy he's here.

The "emergence" of punk, in 2008, was a social interest story, as international media arrived in Beijing for Olympics coverage but "discovered" Chinese rock.

It's different now, as Nevin Domer, COO of Maybe Mars and founder of Genjing Records, explains in our latest episode of The Creamcast.

Long-time Beijinger and The Local owner Kenn Burmel enlightens hosts John Artman and Amy Daml on why his bar is no longer called Brussels, how he survived SARS locked into his dorm (people had a lot of sex), and what exactly propelled The Local to an improbable 2nd-place finish in last year's the Beijinger Burger Cup (including a shocking -- shocking -- victory over Blue Frog).

Candice Lee is leaving China, and that doesn't seem fair for those of us who can't imagine a Beijing without her -- including the bowling league, the annual kickball tournament, those random nights at 4corners or Great Leap Brewing when she would be merrily blitzed from a boozy dinner and talk about things no one would remember the day after.