Editor's Note:

The story All 'ale to the chief' in Beijing appeared on November 8 on the front page of Metro Beijing. It was about how foreigners in the Chinese capital, particularly Americans, witnessed and reacted to the US presidential election contested by President Barack Obama and his Republican challenger Mitt Romney held the previous morning Beijing time. Many gathered to watch televised coverage of the ballot at bars, restaurants and cafés. Two of the most popular venues were Brussels Bar and Restaurant in Sanlitun, Chaoyang district, and Bridge Café in Wudaokou, Haidian district. Both were packed with crowds of up to 200 people, who anxiously watched to see who would be declared the winner. 

The story:

Crowds at venues peaked at around 8 am, with many people staying until 3 pm Beijing time to watch live coverage of Obama's victory speech.

Both Brussels and Bridge Café's events were organized by veteran American expats in Beijing. Supporters of both candidates in the presidential race turned out, although the majority were Democrats who were elated by Obama's victory.

When I contacted Nell Chen, the Taiwanese manager of Bridge Café, she said that she was hosting the event to cater to her American customers. She advertised the event inside the café using posters, but never anticipated it would receive such an enthusiastic response.

"Around 200 people came on the day. They completely occupied the entire third floor, where the election coverage was screened," she said.

Chen said her patrons were overwhelmingly Obama supporters, as evident by their T-shirts. But there were a few brave Romney supporters among the crowd, too.

The Chinese owners of Brussels and Bridge Café all capitalized on the election and people's desire to watch it unfold by offering promotions. A female manager at Brussels, surnamed Wang, said the bar offered a discounted American breakfast that morning. At Bridge Café, Chen added a Chinese touch to the American occasion by supplying customers with 400 bottles of free Tsingtao Beer.

"I don't care too much about who won the election, but I was happy for the Americans when [Obama] won. He gave a good, touching speech," Chen said.

The back story:

I was glad to be assigned this story as it offered the opportunity for Metro Beijing to give readers a local reaction to an election that had the much of the world's attention.

I was initially interested in the poll due to Obama's oratory skills throughout his campaign, but later I found it to be even more intriguing after speaking to Beijing-based Americans who explained why they were so passionate about casting their vote in the ballot.

Ada Shen, who works at votefromabroad.org, a website that simplifies the process for voting with absentee ballots, was one of the many Americans at Brussels. I received her contact through Chen, who said Shen had helped her organize the event at Bridge Café.

"It's not just about coming out and watching [the election] on TV," Shen said. "It's about the conversation and passion that comes from watching it together." Shen, an ardent Obama supporter, compared the presidential election to a "sport."

"[The election] is very competitive during the so-called game, but once this game is over we have to come together. There is lots of work to do as a nation," she noted.

Also on the same day, the sports bar Cuju in Dongcheng district served a special honey beer by Jing A, a small local brewery. The beer was brewed using the same ingredients posted on the White House's website.

Badr Benjelloun, the bar's Moroccan owner who lived in the US for nearly a decade, was inspired to serve the official beer of the White House when Jing A approached him with the idea. "This was the first time we made this recipe. We made three cases, [solely] for this morning," Benjelloun said of the beer, which was priced at 35 yuan ($5.6) per bottle and sold out.

My American colleague, Hannah Leung, and I worked on the story together. We divided our list of people to contact and devised a plan to ensure we could cover a vast Beijing-based demographic of expats.

We began first by polling our colleagues about where they went to watch the elections, to get a general idea of which places were popular. We also gathered information from our personal contacts to get a clearer understanding of how people experienced the day. From there, we rang bars and establishments that were patronized by election watchers.

We also phoned experts and political analysts we had interviewed in the past about the election to conduct follow-up interviews.

The toughest task proved to be collecting a diverse range of responses based on interviewees' political affiliation. Perhaps Republican supporters were less willing to admit their allegiance in the wake of Romney's defeat, but the vast majority of people Metro Beijing interviewed were Democrats.

 The US election was held on the eve of the November 8 opening of the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. In recent weeks, Metro Beijing's coverage has centered on the China's leadership transition and how the capital has prepared for it. Nearly 1.5 million volunteers were recruited to ensure security and countless items - ranging from ping-pong balls to model aircraft- were banned.

The reactions of American expats in Beijing to the US election offered a change to the regular agenda of political news reported by Metro Beijing.