- Shanghai
- /
- drink
- (16)
-
China
One of the very few choices for budget foreign travellers, the Captain's hostel enjoys a prime location on the Bund and sports a pretty decent roof restaurant to boot. It's 20RMB for a bunk; best to book. Though it's possible to get 'Chinese' dorm rooms elsewhere it's not recommended.
37 Fuzhou Lu, nearest Metro Henan Zhong Lu (Line 2) Tel: +86 21 63235053 www.captainhostel.com.cn
A lot of people disdain 'Irish pubs' and on the whole they'd be right. Nonetheless, but for the extortionate prices (you're looking at 65RMB - that's five quid - for a Guinness), O'Malley's is still a great place to settle down for an afternoon. The place really comes alive when there's a big sporting event on, and in the covered beer garden on match night there's no beating the atmosphere.
42 Tao Jiang Road, Tel +86 21 6474 4533 omalleys-shanghai.com
Every major city has one: Chinatown in London and New York; Le Quartier Chinois in Paris; Berlin is actually building one. So it may surprise you to learn that even cities in China have Chinatowns too.
In Shanghai it’s the Yu Yuan area, a sealed-off district where development is not quite as rampant as elsewhere and the atmosphere of old China still pervades. At its centre is the famed Yu Yuan teahouse and classical gardens, plus the temple of the city god. Yu Yuan is pretty commercial these days – most of the area’s business is in selling tourist tat, but it’s still the place to go for Chinese arts and crafts.
A bit tricky to get to by Metro. Your best bet is a taxi.
Every city's got one; Shanghai has three. But this newly refurbished English pub currently has its Irish rivals beat on value at least. The Sheperd's Pie is great and they even have Cornish pasty (sometimes).
1 Wulumuqi Nan Lu (near Dong Ping Lu)
Phone: 6466-7878
Most certainly THE place to be seen in Shanghai, this classy split bar and restaurant has magnificent views over the Bund and the Pudong skyline.
You can't be seen coming here by public transport. Taxi - find No.5 The Bund (at the corner of Guangdong Lu) and head up to the 7th floor. www.m-onthebund.com/
Not to be confused with its sister bar in Mao Ming Lu, Windows Too is Shanghai's prime budget dancefloor bar. Yeah, so it's a meat market, but with beers at a third of the cost of other clubs (plus a couple of free drinks included in the cover charge) it's by far the best place for a night of good, clean fun.
Right inside the plaza at Jing An Temple Metro Station (Line 2), 1699 Nanjing Lu if you're walking
Shanghai is all about the petty things in life. What you do, who you're with and where you're seen. Never who you actually are. And nowhere sums up this decadent philosophy more than Park 97. Without question THE place to be when the sun goes down, it's a restaurant, it's a bar, it's a nightclub and it's a statement.
2A Gaolan Lu, Sinan Lu, near Fuxing Park. Too cool even to be dropped off by taxi, you really need your own chauffeur. Tel: 00 86 21 5383 2328
On the wall of this smoky no-nonsense bar notoriously hangs a framed letter. Issued by the consulate of New Zealand it warns readers about Kiwi Pete, the proprietor and a true Shanghai character...
Little more needs to be said, but the often anarchic atmosphere of this place makes a welcome change from the soporific tone of others in the area. And the beer's better priced too.
35 Yongjia Lu, south end of Maoming Lu. Nearest metro - Shanxi Nan Lu (line 1) Tel: +86 21 5466 6066
You can't miss this hotel, in every sense. Taking up the 53rd to the 87th floors of one of the world's tallest buildings (at 1,380ft it's just a tad shorter than Chicago's Sears tower), the Jin Mao Tower boasts what is probably the highest cocktail bar around. There are also panoramic views across the city - assuming you can see past the smog. It's not that cheap -the rooms are at least 2,600RMB (over £170) - but you can stump up 50RMB for a visitor's ticket and sneak in a quick Martini and a few photos.
88 Century Boulevard, nearest Metro Liu Jia Zui (Line 2) Tel: +86 21 5049 1234
Funny how some places just seem to pack them in while the rest of the city is comatose. More a club than a restaurant, at weekends after 11pm, this place rocks. Folks even get up and dance on the bar (though they tend exclusively to be drunk American students). And check out ladies night on a Wednesday for the free - yes free - margheritas. Arriba!
5 Hengshan Lu, behind Sasha's bar-restaurant on the corner of Dongping Lu Tel: +86 21 64746166 www.zapatas-shanghai.com/
Don't expect to see much football, rugby or cricket in this American sports bar. Do expect the best burgers in town. Good value on weekday lunchtimes when you can get soup, a main course and a coke for only 45RMB (about £3)
257 Tongren Lu, walkable from Jing An Temple Metro Station (Metro Line 2) Tel: 021-6247-2400
Home to Shanghai Shenhua football club, on match days Hongkou stadium reverberates to the drumming of the team's most loyal fans, the ‘Blue Devils’. It also hosts concerts from the like of... er... Celine Dion and Sarah Brightman. Next door is a magnificent entertainment complex with snooker, pool, bowling and karaoke (known here as KTV) all under one roof.
Hongkou Stadium Metro Station (Line 3). Fixture lists found in some English language magazines and newspapers
Not everyone likes the dingy cavern setting of this often very crowded nightclub; more, however, appreciate the 100RMB entry tax on a Friday which includes free drinks all night. Live music and DJs too.
697 Yongjia Lu, Tel: 6433 5023 Nearest Metro station - Heng Shan Lu (Metro Line 1). www.muralbar.com
In a city with a very commercial - yet often rather dull - bar scene, this is quite a find. In the smoky lobby area, guests loll on cushions in opium-den style, while the main bar really gets going when the ska does. It's the regular live ska band that makes this bar, though the general feel of illicit pleasures in darkened chambers gives you quite a blast from Shanghai's past.
85 Huating Road, corner of Huaihai Road - right on Changshu Road Subway, exit 1.
The word on the street is that Mao Ming Lu will soon be closing: ex-president Jiang Zemin wants to settle down nearby for his retirement and doesn’t want a noisy bar scene on his doorstep. Nevertheless, it is still the epicentre of Shanghai’s nightlife. More alive than Heng Shan Lu and more natural than the recently-built substitute Tongren Lu, there’s something here for just about everyone. Windows Bar gets jammed full of dancers after midnight: The Blue Frog has a fine ambience: Judy’s is a meat market with a lethal all-you-can-drink happy hour. It's often dead but when it gets going Mao Ming Lu is a taste of the decadent party spirit that never quite escaped from Shanghai.
Mao Ming Lu, of course; the bars are at the south end near Yongjia Lu. Nearest Metro is Shanxi Nan Lu (Metro Line 1)
A converted patch of the old French Concession area full of swanky restaurants and bars, Xintiandi could almost be a corner of a cosmopolitan city tucked into the centre of Asia's hottest boomtown. It's expensive. Very expensive. But there's no better place to experience the cafe culture that was swinging hardest during Shanghai's golden age back in the 30s.
Get off at Huang Pi Nan Lu (Metro Line 1) and follow the Gucci.
Is this your business?Search Been there
