No longer Shanghai's staid sister, Beijing is reinventing herself as a party town, but without the pretensions of her southern sibling. A frenzy of building and refurbishing in recent years means there's now a venue for every breed of boozer, from beer-stained pub to crepuscular cocktail lounge. There are also more dance clubs than you can count—although these mostly rely more on flash than on class. An emerging middle class means that you'll find most bars have a mixed crowd and aren't just swamps of expatriates, but there will be spots where one or the other set will dominate. More »
