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Home --Single City Guide -- Shanghai Tours--Nightlife
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Shanghai Night Life
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The main bar streets in Shanghai is Tongren Lu and Julu Lu. In addition there is also a bar area on Hua Shan Lu opposite the Hilton hotel, just around the corner from Julu Lu. The bars on Maoming Road South was told many years ago that they would have to move as a result of a planned redevelopment of the area.
This work now appears to be under way and almost all the bars in this area have now closed although many of them have opened new bars on Tongren Lu. This includes Judy's, Manhattan, The Blue Frog, and others.There are also a number of bars close to Zapatas at the junction of Hengshang Lu and Dongpin Lu. The main ones on Hengshang Lu that are still going are Zapatas, Bourbon Street, Narcicus, and Oscars.
If you are interested in the club dance music scene in a bar, then head to either of the Windows bars. One is located across the street from the Jing An Temple. If it is too noisy for you, or too crowded, there is another bar in that complex down the stairs close to the subway entrance. Heng Shan Road is another strip of great bars with Bourbon Street and other bars. They are more laid back, and the entertainment varies from week to week.
There are several jazz bars in Shanghai, including the bar at the Portman, the Cotton Club, CJW over in Xin Tian Di, and the House of Jazz and Blues on Maoming Road
A more trendy upscale environment is Face on Ruijin Er Road, or Park 97 on Fuxing Park. Xin Tian Di offers a whole assortment of bars, and walking around the area at night gives a great idea of the styles of the bars. Malone’s over on Tong Ren Road is a sports bar that has a great pool table, and a good dance show. O’Malley’s is an Irish pub with folks music up on the second floor balcony and televised rugby, soccer, and Australian football. Zapata’s on Heng Shang Road offers a great Mexican styled environment in an old villa, with a great variety of music, mixed drinks, and dancing on two floors and out into the beer garden in the summer.
Shanghai’s club scene is very intermingled with its bar scene, but the most notable club in the city is Pegasus on Huai Hai Road. The club is known for bringing in djs from around the world.
Real Love on Heng Shan Road is another dance club that has popularity with the 20something Chinese crowd. Heng Shan Road is a good street to look for a club, because if you don’t like what you see at Real Love, there are other options a short walk away. Bourbon Street offers music and dancing, as do many other places on the street. All you have to do is listen from outside and you can be sure to get an idea of what is being played inside.
Right in that area, Zapatas offers great dance music, even though it is more renowned as a Mexican style bar. Zapatas gets quite lively at the weekedns, but Wednesday night is usually even livelier due to it being ladies night with free Margaritas for all ladies. In this area on Yong Jia Road, Mural offers a crazy lineup of Latin music and funk, and they often run special promotional events to get people in the door and keep them there.
Guangdii in Fuxing Park has two rooms with hip hop and a mixture of house and trance. If you want to switch venues, you can always move from Guangdii on over to Upstairs at Park 97.
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Xin Tian Di
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Xin Tian Di is one of the newly-built scenic spots, located in South Huangpo Road and Taican Road, This spot is a public house complex with Europ-style and its main part of construction is Shi Ku Door (Shi Ku Men) style. In day time, here you can see thousands of sightseers from the other parts of the country or the other counties taking pictures keeping as souvenirs. In the evening, this place permeates through the romantic Europe flavor.
The open public houses, Cafés are so popular with the young and foreigners here. The restaurants with different characters fabricate romantic atmosphere with the bright myriad twinkling lights or the faint lights. Furthermore, you can see all kinds of handicraft articles exhibition halls with different styles, picture galleries and article stores with distinct individuality. At 9 o'clock or 10 o'clock the mysterious lovers would appear here ghostly. Maybe now, under a phoenix tree or in a primitive and simple old villa, a whingding party is held. If you walk tired or drink full, you can go to the nearby lawn of Taipingqiao(peace bridge) to enjoy another atmosphere.
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Shanghai Acrobatics
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Acrobatics is a traditional performance art with a long history in China. Its performances are breathtaking, humoristic and interesting. In Shanghai there are many acrobatic troupes, such as Shanghai Xingguang Acrobatic Troupe, Shanghai Yunzhimu Acrobatic Troupe, Shanghai Acrobatic Troupe etc. among them the Shanghai Acrobatic Troupe is the most famous one. This troupe has experienced many performance tours in different countries and received a high reputation in the world and copped many international awards. If you are interested in acrobatic performances please buy ticket(the travel agency will assist you) in these theatres: Shanghai Centre Theatre, Shanghai Circus World, Baiyulan Theatre, Yunfeng Theatre, Shanghai Grand Theatre etc. in any one of them you can enjoy the gapemouthed performances, which will leave you a deep and happy memory.
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Shanghai Opera
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Shanghai Opera is the local opera of Shanghai, originated from the Shange (a kind of folk song) of Jiangnan (areas south of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River). With the sweet music and the gentle Shanghai dialect it sounds like the songful tones in the "Jiangnan Shuixiang"(the towns or villages with Canals, lakes and rivers in areas south of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River),it is very popular with people in the areas of Shanghai and Zhejiang province.
If you are interested in Shanghai Opera, you can go and see it in Yi Fu Theatre, Tian Chan Peking Opera Art Centre, (address: NO. 701Fuzhou Road, Shanghai.) This centre is the only one traditional opera perform theater in Shanghai. It was built in 1925. In the meridian period of Beijing opera, there was ever a much-told tale in the opera circle--- Peking Opera actor or actress who does not perform in Tian Chan Peking Opera Art Centre cannot rise to fame.
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The folk art form in Shanghai-Ping tan
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Pingtan (storytelling and ballad singing in Suzhou or Shanghai dialects) is originated from Suzhou, Jiangsu Province and palmy in Shanghai. It is a very old grazioso folk rap art which includes Tanci (fiddle ballads in Chinese southern dialects) and Pinghua (popular stories telling). Tanci is also called "small storytelling" usually performed by couples. When in performance, one performer plays the Sanxian, the other one plays the Pipa, but sometimes there are three performers or only one performer in the performance. Alternately, the performer(s) Sing and tell in the performance.
There are many excellent traditional theatrical pieces of Pingtan, such as Pearl Tower, A Depicting Golden Phenix (a love story with more involved plots), Jade Dragonfly (it is a very complicated story), Three Smiles (a very romantic love story) etc. Pinghua is also called "big storytelling", most of the performers of the storytelling are male. When in performance, they tell but seldom sing, it something likes the storytelling in northern China. Its traditional theatrical pieces are The Romance of Three Kingdoms, Outlaws of the Marshes, the Heroic Deeds of Ming Dynasty etc.
The story plots of Pinghua are uncanny, involved and gripping. With a folding fan, a big handkerchief, a lump of Jingtang wood (used to hit the table or desk when began to or finish perform the storytelling) and the gentle and songful Suzhou dialect, the performers will lead you into the elegant and enchanting historical atmosphere. This folk art is very popular with all walks of life in Shanghai. There are many good places for you to see the Pingtan performances, such as Tian Chan Peking Opera Art Centre and Lyceum Theatre etc. In some ancient-style tea houses you also can see the Pingtan performances, for instance, the mid-lake pavilion in Yu Garden is a base for the fanciers of Pingtan. To enjoy Pingtan you'd better experience personally to this place. Sitting on the bank of lake, seeing the Pingtan performance over drinking the longjing tea and tasting the Xiaolongbao (small steamed meat bun) are very good sense.
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Jiangnan Sizhu
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A kind of music plays with the traditional stringed and bamboo-wind instruments of the areas south of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. The name of the Jiangnan Sizhu stems from the instruments when the bands used in their performances. The stringed instruments (such as erhu,yangqin,pipa,sanxian,qinqin,)and bamboo-wind instruments ( such as bamboo flute, vertical bamboo flute and reed wind pipe ) are mainly utilized in the performances.
The Jiangnan Sizhu is very prevalent in the south part of Jiangsu province, the west part of Zhejiang province and the area of shanghai. Its performing styles are absolutely different in the cities and the rural areas. The style of the Jiangnan Sizhu in the cities is elegant and gorgeous,and many performing skills are largely used in the bands. While the rural style use the gongs and drums in their performances. Its performing atmosphere is spiritoso and its style is simple. If you want to enjoy the real simon-pure Jiangnan Sizhu, please go and sit in the teahouse of the mid-lake pavilion in Yu Garden, order a cup of Longjing(Dragon well) tea and enjoy music. Here now, you can have ease of mind in the melodies and shrug off your troubles. |
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