Usually when the clock strikes 10 PM tents are being raised at various streets and tables being prepared with different snack foods. These foods include calamari on stick (Squid), Pork/lamb meat on stick, Fishballs, cabbage in soy sauce, fried dumpling on stick and much more. These nightly food stands are usually open between 10 PM and 2 AM.

Each foodstuff comes with a price of either 1 or 2 kuai so its inexpensive. Beer to that (usually a local brand or Tsingtao) comes at a price of 4-5 kuai.

The places where the food is served are very simple with plastic chairs and plastic tables in the open air. Still, it has a nice atmosphere due to the fact that Chinese people hang around there, not only “tourists”.

You can also eat snack foods at the bars but its usually a lot more expensive. For example a portion of French Fries in MTC club would go for 20 kuai which is the equivalent of Ten lambsticks at a nightmarket stand.

McDonald’s in China is open 24/7 and offer food for the hungry after a bar night. The price is usually 20 kuai for a Big Mac set.

Personally I prefer the Nightmarket food.

The first bar on the Bar Street is Red Bar which is the most popular club in Zhuhai. It is one of the most expensive ones and plays international music (not necessarily MTV hits).

The club is always packed with people so its difficult to find a place to sit. There is a very small dancefloor and DJ’s who mix music still few people dance (This is not Shanghai or Guangzhou where clubs are packed with people on the dancefloors).

If you are a person who prefers rock, techno, dance this is not the club for you. The music played is mostly HipHop from different countries such as France, Egypt, American, Russian as well as some MTV hits.

Cohiba is a bar that lies on the end of the bar street. Its more like a Restaurant with a live band where they serve beer, cocktails and snacks. Its like a TGI Friday type of place with a Cuban theme. A nice place to hang out with before heading for the clubs.

Outside the bar street there is a Dance club which is located near Gongbei Port (Macau border). This is one of the few places that has a big dancefloor and people come there to dance. The place is huge and the dancefloor is packed. Prices here are much lower here than in Red Bar or MTC and people drink mostly beer. Music being played is mostly Cantonese pop and Chinese remixes and covers of famous western or Chinese songs. It is worthwile to take a visit to this club to experience real Chinese nightlife China style.

The strange thing was that even though the club had music and a DJ mixing songs there was no dance floor to dance on. And if there were any dance floor it would probably be very small.

Overall the clubs have very nice interior and good atmosphere. But what amazed me was that people just sat there smoking cigarettes and just listening to the music. Almost no one dances here in China it seems. Very different from my home country Sweden where the dancefloor is packed with people…..

And ordering a drink without knowing Chinese is a cliffhanger.

If you do go to a club in China make sure to bring a card which says your address in chinese characters because otherwise you would probably spend the night at the police station trying to explain where you live.

By a rare stroke of luck, I’ve managed to gain a great contact. She works in the Beijing nightlife scene and can get free tables and drinks for friends at clubs around town. Without going into more details, we hit to Club Tango one night.

Club Tango is a nice, newly renovated place located near the south gate of Ditan park. Inside, there are many rooms for karaoke, but also a regular club with DJs, bartenders and tables. Tango is more known for their karaoke than their club.

We got a three-sofa table group and were 7 people. We had sweet strawberry cocktail shots, fruit plates, 3 bottles of Johnny Walker Black Label and lots of soft drinks. The Black Label was mixed either with ginger ale or grape juice. Both were good, but I preferred the ginger ale version.

Between the Black Label drinks, I had some pure Black Label. On one shot a bartender and also part-owner of the club set the 43% JW shot on fire with his lighter. It was pretty hot, so I dropped it and set the tissue on the table on fire – a small embarrassment. That night I also learned a drinking game played with dices. It’s pretty fun and I’ll probably cover it some time.

When you’re tired of all the Western-style bars and clubs over at Sanlitun, Houhai and Workers Stadium – you should definitely try this out. This is what many Beijingers do and is a cool experience for the casual traveler.

• Make sure you’re with good company.
• Scourge the streets until you find the closest Muslim (Xinjiang) joint, and get a table outdoors.
• Start ordering Yanjing (Beijing) brand beers and some shish kebab (yang rou chuan / lamb on a stick), some pickled peanuts and green beans to go along with it.
• If you don’t know how to order, point at the plate of your neighbors and order what they’ve ordered.
• Let the games begin. Usually 6 bottles is enough for a person.
• Be merry.

The beers go for around 4 CNY ($0.6 USD) per 600 ml bottle and the kebabs 0.5 CNY ($0.1 USD) each. All together it shouldn’t cost more than 35 CNY ($5 USD) per person. Not only is this a very good deal, but also something unique to remember. I liked the food and the beers, and would do this again anytime.

These guys know how to earn money and close when all their customers leave, so don’t worry about the time.

Somewhere in the middle two pretty girls walk to our table and dance next to it. One of them was the prettiest girl I’ve ever seen. When she starts whispering to the birthday child, a large American, I realize something is strange. I whisper to my friend: “She has to be a prostitute.” He goes, “No, she can’t be.”

We drink and dance some more, and when we get home, he tells me “She was a prostitute and wanted 1,000 CNY (approx. $150 USD).”

Oh, was I right. But really, she was the prettiest girl I’ve seen. I got to go clubbing more here.