Downtown Cafe and other club

Downtown Cafe
9:30am-late evening
South Sanlitun Road, Next to the City Hotel
6507-3407
Thursday night is open dart night Music is R&B, oldies rock.

Dragon House
5pm-2am
Sanlitun south Bar Street
6593-2360

Durty Nellie's
noon-2am
Sanlitun south Bar Street
6502-2808
In October celebrate a month of Irish culture with special food from Ireland at the bar.

Fengxing Musk Bar
5pm-2am.
Baiyi Road, Straight north from Capital Stadium on Baiyilu, on east side of South Gate of Agriculture and Science University
6217-7744 ext2286
Live music nightly by original bands or cover acts.

First Avenue Cafe and Bar
6pm-2am
Opposite West gate of Beijing University
6264-0702
Western food, snacks and dance in a low lit, stylishly glowing yellow decor.

Fly Bar
8pm-late evening.
Sanlitun South Bar Street
6507-6619

Foreign Exchange Club
2/F, 27 Dongzhimen Wai Avenue,
6466-7738

Friends Club
6pm-2am
1/F, Huadu Hotel, next to Capital Mansion,
6597-1166 ext.8082
Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday catch Copy Cat and watch a stylized dance performance at legend Zhang Tianshuo's rock sanctuary. In-Sound-Out plays on Fridays, and Yin Chuizi goes out on a limb with electronically inspired music every Tuesday and Sunday. All shows start at 9pm.

Get Lucky Bar
5pm-2am
Taiyang Gong, East of University of International Business and Economics, near Taiyang Market
6429-9109, 6420-4249
Hard to find, but worth the trip. Beijing's up and coming underground rock venue. Live shows every Saturday and Sunday.

Happy Paradise
5pm-2am
In the alley opposite Wudaokou Workers Club, (look for the Xinjiang restaurant at the end of the alley)
6232-6821

Hard Drive Cafe
7am-2am
Tower A, Sigma Apartment, 49 Zhichun Road
8809-6922

Havana Cafe
11am-late evening
Near the Northern gate of Worker Stadium
6586-6166, 6594-0048
Packed, packed, packed. Sundays the theme is chill out music with local DJs invited to spin every Sunday from 3-6pm.

Hidden Tree
6pm-2am
12 Dongdaqiao Xie Street
6509-3642

High Ground
1pm-2am
19 Zuojiazhuang Beili Shangye Street
6468-6708
Crazed militant design, but amusing nonetheless.

Nightlife In Beijing 1

19 Bar
8pm-2am
49 Beixiao Street Dongzhimennei
8403-9548

Aloha
10:30pm-2am.
Xidan Cutural Square Basement, 3rd Level
6606-3374
Featuring a cover band that plays Chinese pop songs and a belly dancing show every night at 9.

Arcadia
10am-2am.
Building 3, Block 1, Fangzhuang Fangchengyuan
6764-8272

Big Easy
5pm-2pm
Chaoyang Park South Gate
6508-6776
On Mondays see Danny California and Humble Mike, while Jacqui Staton plays with the Big Easy Band from Tuesday to Saturday. Sunday there is a kids brunch and at night Sweet Willies Jazz Quartet plays with guest singers. Dou Peng sings dinner music every night

Black Jack Garden
7pm-late evening
On the Northside of building 2 in Xingfu Yicun. (The hutong across from the north gate of Worker's Stadium)
6417-4628
Arty hangout with Southern USA Decoration, blues, southern rock and jazz music. One of the owners is a tattoo artist, another is a DJ, and the third is an actor who played Puyi in The Last Emperor.

The Blue Lotus Cafe
2pm-2am
11 Qianhai Beiyan, Xicheng District
6618-2542,
The right place to drop by to enjoy a cup of coffee in a great atmosphere after a nice walk around Qianhai lake.

Century Salon
8am-10pm.
8 Yong'an Dongli, Jianwai Avenue
8528-8067/66/65

The Club & Music Scene

Live Music--Most of the bars on San Li Tun North Bar Street offer nightly live "music" performances by cover bands, usually of scant talent and almost invariably Filipino in origin. But there are several small venues, most of them in Chaoyang, which host an increasingly varied lineup of musical acts. Performers range from traditional folk instrumentalists to jazz ensembles and rock outfits, and are usually interesting, if not always good. Most venues are bars open nightly from around 5pm to 1 or 2am, although few offer live acts every night. There is usually a small cover charge on performance nights (¥5-¥50/$1-$6), depending on the number of acts and their prestige. Time Out and that's Beijing maintain somewhat accurate listings of what is playing where and when.

Clubs & Discos--The average Chinese will lump all dancing establishments into a single category -- tiaowudian (dancing place), or, if they try it in English, "dee-si-ko." But while the distinction between a Beijing disco and a Beijing dance club is lost on most locals, it is readily apparent to any foreigner. Discos are typically old and cavernous, with exaggerated decor, horrible music, and a wholly Chinese clientele whose attempts to imitate Western modes of style and dance will send shivers down your spine. Clubs, by contrast, are newer, smaller, and more stylish, with a DJ-dominated atmosphere closer in feel to what you'd find in the United States or Europe. The club clientele is wealthier, more diverse (featuring both Chinese and foreigners), and not quite as clueless.

Both discos and dance clubs charge high covers (anywhere from ¥50-¥150/$6-$19). Both tend to get crowded on weekends around 10pm and empty around 3am, although a few clubs will host special parties that last until dawn. There is some activity on Thursday nights, but the rest of the week is slow. Discos pre-date the days of the drinking district and hence are scattered randomly around the city. Clubs tend to be situated next to bars, in foreigner-heavy areas like San Li Tun and Chaoyang Park.

Karaoke: Down that Drink and Pop in Those Ear Plugs, Ma, It's Time to Sing--No one knows why Asian cultures have embraced karaoke (pronounced "kala okay" in Mandarin) with such red-faced gusto, or why so many foreigners adopt the enthusiasm once they're on Eastern soil. Maybe the food lacks some amino acid crucial to the brain's shame function. Or maybe it's just fun to get soused and pretend you have talent thousands of miles from anyone who cares. It doesn't matter either way. Spend enough time in Beijing and sooner or later you'll find yourself standing before a TV screen, beer and microphone in hand, with a crowd of drunkards insisting you sing to the Muzak version of a Beatles hit. Refuse and your Chinese host loses face; comply and you receive applause. Resistance is futile. Most karaoke venues in Beijing are seedy and given over to less-than-legal side entertainment, so if you have any choice in the matter head to Party World, also known as the Cash Box (Qian Gui; tel. 010/6588-3333; open 24 hr.), the city's classiest and best-equipped do-it-yourself concert venue. Located southeast of the Full Link Plaza, at the corner of Chaowai Shichang Jie and Chaowai Nan Jie, Cash Box boasts a hotel-like lobby, pleasantly decorated private rooms, and a wide selection of Western songs, some even released in the last decade. Prices range from ¥39 to ¥365 ($5-$46) per hour, depending on size of the room and night of the week. There's usually a line, so you'll have to give them your name early. You wouldn't want to embarrass yourself anywhere else.