Hahahaha. God it was a lot of fun. And intense. And pretty painful too – obviously not the same as 7.62mm AK-47 round – but enough to try to make sure you dont get hit too many times.

I like real guns that shoot real things that move – not too many people on the whole, although I must admit that desire has been there on occasion. So was a little skeptical about BB, but it was a mate’s Stag Party, there were 20 funny people going, so even if the BB was crap, it was going to be a guaranteed great afternoon. The first bottle of pastisse was gone by 11am, and in no time we were out at the ‘camp’. No joke, this place is on the edge of rather daunting looking military base. There was a Chinese (Xinjiang) style BBQ waiting for us and some more tepid beer, so by the time we got our camo gear, helmets and guns, we were definitely ready for some testosterone / alcohol fuelled violence.

Counter-Strike China has a wooded side of a hill, maybe 10 or 20 hectares with 5 game areas. The place was riddled with trenches, pill-boxes, guard towers and dugouts. Several paths slithered through the undergrowth and I could not help thinking of some of the scenes in Platoon or Apocalypse Now. 20 drunk guys with pretty realistic looking machine-guns helped.

We played 5 games, the usual “Get the Flag” or “Kill EVERYBODY” on two different game areas. Sweated a lot. Ripped our clothes. Got shot up. The Stag had a bright yellow plastic bag on his head, so everybody, including his team-mates made sure he got riddled every game. Focusing on not getting “killed” while running up and down hills is exhausting, but seriously good fun. Try it out one time.

You have to get on the National Road 320 to Fuyang. 15 minutes on from the ringroad keep an eye out for the petrol station on right. Turn in, follow dusty broken road up past military base and on up the hill to the top.