I asked my main main in Shanghai, Kane Vast to finish off this series since Shanghai is his stomping ground. He willingly agreed to help me out and I’m really thankful for that because he’ll be able to give you way better insider knowledge of the scene than I can.
When I originally asked him to put something together he wrote THOUSANDS of words, so I’ve decided to break it up into some smaller chunks for easy consumption.
Anyway, enough of me, let’s get to what you really want to know…
—
Hey RPQ asked me to drop by and give my 2 yuan on Shanghai night life.
To start it all off…..
Shanghai has everything………..from clean and classy to dark and dirty.
Shanghai gives you choice.
Shanghai is everything good, bad and awesome all mixed together.
Starting with dinner….
Shanghai has every restaurant, cuisine and scary dish you could imagine….whatever you can think of, we’ve got it (yes that includes house pets). (anywhere from 100 rmb for 3 people to 1000 depending which restaurant u go to)
It’s a great city to start out eating something awesome for dinner (Xin jiang food for example – Lou shan guan lu) and then moving onto a lounge for some fancy cocktails (Xintian di and Tian zi fang are fantastic, expensive but classy) or even an ice bar, the next step is to then hit up one of Shanghai’s many clubs……
We’ve got world famous clubs and world famous DJ’s….and then we’ve got everything else on the dark side of night life that you could think of.
I’m into the Clubs and DJ’s so thats what you’re gonna hear about from me.
Drink price ranges are described in three ways.
Expensive: 100 rmb for a drink (vodka and coke) is expensive and its most likely the alcohol is real.
Ok: 40 to 70rmb is an ok price and there is a good chance its real.
Cheap: 10 to 30 rmb is cheap and you’re getting either really cheap rubbish alcohol or fake alcohol (some clubs here are famous for fake alcohol)
We’re going to remember a few key points about China here:
1. Bars/Clubs are there to make money, not to look after you or get involved in your problems, meaning if you get drunk or into a fight you will not receive help from bouncers, they will watch 20 Chinese dudes beat you down and not do a damn thing to help.
2. Almost all major clubs have girls who are paid to drink with you, a lot the clubs have hookers./
These are pretty easy to spot because there will be a table full of girls who aren’t drinking much and are all sitting there on their phones looking bored.
3. Chinese people overall are friendly…..do keep in mind that the personal space thing is non existent here so being pushed and shoved is normal and means you shouldn’t start fights over it (no matter how god damn annoying it is) because you wont win.
Here we go
I’m going to break this down into types: (I will post about the dive bars, other clubs that i didn’t mention here and anything else i missed next time)
Big commercial clubs:
Club Obama: Club Obama opened with a bang…..and then fizzled. (Yan an xi lu)
It is huge, it is classy and it is over done.
I went there for the opening night and it was crazy, the club is well set up with a theater like setting with chairs surrounding the dance floor which is in the middle of the room.
It occasionally draws famous DJ’s and has a generally mixed crowd of Chinese and Foreigners….the problem is that the club isn’t close to the central part of Shanghai night life (Xintian Di area) and that makes it not as popular.
Mostly house/techno music.
Drinks are exxxxxxxxxpensive.
Circus: Circus Circus Circus……. (Yan an xi lu)
This place is either really awesome or really crap.
It’s above Obama and seems to suffer from the location problem a little but it also makes up for it by having dancers and other forms of entertainment (lots and lots of girls you can pay to sit down and drink with you).
It draws a crowd of both Chinese and Foreigners…most foreigners mostly.
The dance floor is again in the middle of the room, they mostly have techno, house or remixes of Hip hop.
Drinks are ok priced.
Bar 88: Hookers, Lady boys, Drunk Chinese.
Bar 88…..It’s everything awesome and terrible all mixed in one, there are lady boys, prostitutes and more all cruising around this bar, lots of tables (an INSANE amount) and an ok sized dance floor, always fun because of the constant insanity.
There are a lot of drunk Chinese people and a good mix of Foreigners chucked in….it is usually busy and its above ground level (long long stairs to get up) which is amusing when you’re watching drunk people come down.
Drinks aren’t over the top but not too cheap either.
The intro and brief hit up on three clubs should keep you busy!
Another post with alllllllot more club information on the way (Big commercial clubs and others continued next time).
Peace
—
Thanks for dropping by, Kane.
We’ll have the next post up in about a week so look for it.
