Shanghai Night Life Part II

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.

Shanghai Night Life: Part I

It's been a few months since I was last in Shanghai, but a friend of mine is planning on going there to party and asked me for some tips on the scene.  So instead, of writing an e-mail that will benefit just one person, I thought I'd put it up here for everyone to see.

First off, the Shanghai scene is different from other scenes in Asia because the night spots are spread out all over the city.  Secondly, people tend to bounce around to 3 or 4 different venues on any given night out rather than picking a spot and staying there.

One of the really cool things about zipping around from venue to venue by taxi is that it makes bouncing a whole lot easier than the other cities I've been in like Tokyo, Osaka, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taipei and Seoul.

The Shanghai scene also gets started a bit earlier and dies down a bit earlier with a lot of people heading home around 3 or 4am, which in Japan and Korea are the most pumping-est times to be in the club.

On the whole, venues are smaller, and there are more lounge/bar type places and the western style clubs that are there tend to be smaller.  There are also a lot of Chinese style clubs.

Chinese style clubs are more like really loud, dark lounges with small dancefloors.  Most of the time people go there with a large group of friends(like 10 or more).  These social circles are usually guys who have invited their female "friends" out and are footing the bill for the table and drinks.  The guys tend to be pretty protective and it's hard to break into these groups without an "in".  So if you don't know anyone there it's tough, especially for westerners.

Asians seem to have more success with this.  However sometimes the girls will be standing nearby and then you can sometimes cherry pick and isolate them before the guys get involved.  If they do confront you, I find the best way to handle the situation is to be friendly and talk in the face of their hostile stare down and it won't escalate.  Also you get bonus points for being cool and chill while he's doing his try hard alpha show for the girls that he thinks makes him look cool when really the girls are just wondering what he's getting so bent out of shape about.

Because you'll be spending a lot of time in taxis and you probably don't speak Chinese, youre best off to use a service called Guanxi that allows you to text the name of the club, restaurant, bar, etc, you want to go to in English.  You'll get a text back with a selection of the possible places you mean; you select one, and then they send you the address.  You can get the address in Chinese too which you can then show to your taxi driver: 95882929

There's also a free English language call-in service you can use instead(though I've never tried it myself): 962288

In Part II, I'll tell you where to go to chill out and soak in the good vibes as well as where to go to party it up with the cool kids:

Shanghai Night Life Part II

Quick Tips for Meeting Women #7: Club Game

In the boot camp you're doing approach, after approach, after approach. That has the specific purpose of developing the skills of opening and running a set.

However, that's usually not the ideal way to actually sarge a club. The ideal way, is to meet and mingle.

That means bouncing among sets, starting with the easiest opens, while keeping your eyes out for the one or two or three girls that you're really keen on.

In practice that means that you're running attraction with the girls, kinoing playfully, and just having fun and laughing. No isolation. Maybe a bit of qualification, but not enough for them to think that you're actually interested in them. You can start sexualizing early in this case(sexually qualifying her), since you're not actually interested which makes you fun and sexy.

Also, even though the girl isn't someone you'd want to be with seriously, she may be down to fuck you either that night or another time because she can tell from the way that you interact with her that you will deliver the goods.

The main thing is to eject from sets earlier rather than pushing them because you want to make sure you don't get blown out by any of the sets that you're really just using as warm-up and social proofing. Eject after BT Spikes, and then come back later while you're waiting it out.

Almost invariably, there will come a time in the night where it will be easy to open the sets you were targeting. It will be right there, begging to be opened(meaning that you'd be an idiot not to open in that situation).

Then that's when you unleash the full power of your game.

Progressing the Sarge: Quick Tip For Meeting Women #1

Generally, if you're at a party, bar or club and a sarge is going well, there is no need to eject and work the room. Progress it by isolating your target more in the venue or try to bounce her out.  Make sure you've set your time-bridge and #closed.

If you get to a point where you're not getting enough compliance to progress the sarge, then you might consider... ejecting temporarily with the intention of re-opening the set later.

However, a better way to handle this situation is to merge your target into another set.

"Hey, let's go meet some people!" put her on your arm and together go and open other sets.

If you couldn't get her to come with you then you could backwards merge and bring the newly opened sets back into your true target's set. This is more powerful than just opening other sets where she can see.

Seoul Night Life Part 1: Itaewon

Seoul is a great city to party in.  It's one of those cities where there are people out every night of the week.  Sure, on weekdays your selection isn't that great, but on the weekends you'll be spoiled for choice with your friends spread out all over the city all having fun in the different neighborhoods scattered around the city.

There's a lot to the night life in Seoul, so I'm going to start by just naming and giving a brief overview of the major neighborhoods in Seoul that are great for partying it up at night.

In this first part, I'm going to talk about Itaewon, much maligned as the seedy underbelly of Seoul...

Click to read more ...