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Offerings range from world-class swank to dark and dingy dens or from places with young Shanghainese kids screaming experimental punk to Filipino cover bands singing "Hotel California" in a hotel basement. Prices range just as wildly.
The Former French Concession is full of small cocktail bars and speakeasies shrouded in varying degrees of secrecy. Farther east, The Bund is also a good place for upscale bars.
Nightlife streets are constantly changing, subject to government regulations, renovation plans, and the like. Just as there is a move to push restaurants into malls, there's also seemingly an initiative to concentrate bars and clubs where possible. Found 158 on Julu Lu on the edge of the Former French Concession is the major example of this, though areas like Xintiandi and Columbia Circle similarly boast clusters of places to go for a drink alongside their restaurants.
On a quiet lane off busy Nanjing Xi Lu, this café and bar mimics the inside of a tree house, with high ceilings and wood paneling on the rounded walls. The performers here play a variety of jazz and acoustic music, which you can listen to while sipping wine, beer, and cocktails. The food is nothing to write home about and best skipped unless you're starving.
No one has done as much to bring Shanghai rock out from the underground and into the open as has this collective. Headed by a sound engineer and former musician, the group started hosting regular concerts around town and eventually opened its own space. Shows, usually on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday night, spotlight the latest in young Chinese music, especially punk and rock, and the occasional Western act.
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