Shanghai Nightlife Shines
in the
Old French Concession
SOME HOTSPOTS IN AND AROUND SHANGHAI'S OLD FRENCH CONCESSION
Ark Live House
15 North Lane, Xin Tian Di (Lane 181 Taicang Lu)
The Ark is a chic restaurant and music bar that regularly hosts live performances ranging from pop concerts to hip hop dance competitions. This is a good venue to experience the tasteful if somewhat sterile ambience achieved by the widely acclaimed $170 million Xin Tian Di urban redevelopment project undertaken by American architect Benjamin Wood at the behest of Hong Kong developer Shui On. Wood managed to preserve much of the look and feel of dilapidated old-Shanghai-style shikumen (row houses or tenanments) while converting them into Shanghai's toniest shopping and dining area.
California Club
2A Gao Lan Lu, Fuxing Park
Maybe because it shares a complex with two popular restaurants (Tokyo Joe and Baci) in a Fuxing Park complex known as Park97, California Club is a major hit with the city's trendiest young partiers. Its decor is stylish enough but there's nothing subtle about the bright red color scheme or the techno and hip-hop beats that pack the dance floor nightly. The club is the work of a promoter with plenty of experience packing a club by the same name in Hong Kong's Lan Kwai Fong district known for good wine and martinis. Open until 2 a.m. Sunday through Wednesday; until 4 a.m. Thursdays through Saturdays.
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Thriving California, one of several clubs and restaurants imported from Hong Kong's Lan Kwai Fong district, is a leading example of the relatively quick success achieved by imported nightlife developers and promoters since Beijing loosened restrictions on nightlife. California shares the Park97 complex with Baci and Tokyo Joe.
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Guandi
2 Gao Lan Lu, Fuxing Park
While you're at Fuxing Park you might as well check out Guandi, one of Shanghai's best established clubs. Like other Fuxing Park clubs, it offers an upscale ambience. Inside are two separate lounges filled with house/trance/progressive and hip hop.
Cotton Club
1428 Huaihai Zhong Lu
For a stylishly relaxing evening of jazzÊamong well-dressed professionals, the Cotton Club is a good pick. It boasts a quality house jazz band every night, as well as celebrity performers to liven things up. The understated, candlelit ambience attracts a well-mannered crowd. Open nightly until 2 a.m.
Club DKD
172 Maoming Nan Lu near Yongjia Lu
The purple color scheme adds a strangely liberating feel to this big happening club. Famous DJs put out a rotating menu of progressive house beats while a hip young crowd does its thing on the dance floor or in the many sit-down areas scattered throughout. Wednesday hip hop nights pull in a big, lively crowd.
Babyface
180 Maoming Nan Lu
If you like partying in a club that looks like a game arcade, with lots of flashing colored lights, you will enjoy Babyface. It packs in fresh-faced young professionals who dance to break beats, acid jazz or hip hop spun by foreign DJs. A nice touche is the upstairs lounge where you can sit, sip drinks and enjoy the bird's eyes view of the dance floor without having someone's booty pressing against you. The clientele is mostly Chinese. This club is part of a club chain which operates another popular Babyface in Shanghai Square on Huaihai Zhong Lu.
Face
Bldg 4, 118 Ruijin Er Lu
To spend an hour or two soaking in the ambience of Old Shanghai, check out this understated but stylish bar. It's located inside the Ruijin Guest House, a historic mansion of brick and stone that dates back to the 1920s. The quietly elegant ambience is enhanced by the rich wood surfaces accented with vases of fresh-cut flowers. The muted, sparkling background music encourages intimate conversations among friends. A favorite with professionals in their 30s.
“They gathered in the French Concession's numberless cafes and restaurants to plot low intrigues and new world orders. The most successful of these would prove to be Mao and Gang.”
Club DKD, located on ever-happening Maoming Nan Lu, boasts a distinctive purple color scheme that instantly puts guests into the mood to work up a sweat and order drink after expensive drink.
