Making the Most of ’s Nightlife A Guide to Beijing’s Nightlife Beijing Travel Feature Volume 8

北京市旅游发展委员会

A Guide to Beijing’s Nightlife

With more than a thousand years of history and culture, Beijing is a city of contrasts, a beautiful juxtaposition of the traditional and the modern, the east and the west, presenting unique cultural charm. The city’s nightlife is not any less than the daytime hustle and bustle; whether it is having a few drinks at a hip bar, or seeing Peking Opera, acrobatics and Chinese Kung Fu shows, you will never have a single dull moment in Beijing!

This feature will introduce Beijing’s must-go late night hangouts and featured cultural performances and theaters for you to truly experience the city’s nightlife.

2 3 A Guide to Beijing’s Nightlife

Highlights

Late Night Hangouts 2 |

Cultural Performances Beijing “Golden Mask Dynasty” | 4 Red Theatre “Kungfu Legend” | Chaoyang Theatre Acrobatics Show | Liyuan Theatre

Featured Bars 4 Infusion Room | Nuoyan Rice Wine Bar | D Lounge | Janes + Hooch

For more information, please see the details below.

4 Late Night Hangouts

Sanlitun and Houhai are your top choices for the best of nightlife in Beijing. You will enjoy yourself to the fullest and feel immersed in the vibrant, cosmopolitan city of Beijing, a city that never sleeps.

5 Sanlitun

The Sanlitun neighborhood is home to Beijing’s oldest bar street. The many foreign embassies have transformed the area into a vibrant bar street with a variety of hip bars, making it the best nightlife spot in town. Besides, Sanlitun Village (currently known as ), established in 2008, is the biggest shopping mall in Beijing. Have a stroll around this ultra-cool shopping complex! Houhai

Situated in at the back of , Houhai offers old Beijing’s natural sights and cultural charm in the daytime and turns itself into a modern-style bar street at night. There are over 30 bars around ‘Houhai Bar Street’, each with its own style.

7 Cultural Performances

As a city where traditional and modern culture blend, Beijing is your go-to place for Peking opera and theater shows! This section will introduce 4 cultural performances which all have extensive repertoires and bring you a not-to-miss artistic experience.

8 Happy Valley Beijing Happy Valley invested millions in the Golden Mask Dynasty for the best storyline, performers and stage “Golden Mask Dynasty” design, Golden Mask Dynasty is a must for theater- goers! The show is inspired by the ancient civilization Sanxingdui (three stars mound); romance runs through the story, which is divided into 8 chapters of Ancient Wars, Mulberry Fields, Forge Work, Under the Moon, Flood, Sacrifices to Heaven and Illusions, and is about the Golden Mask Queen establishing a glorious dynasty out of wisdom, tolerance, trust and love.

9 Happy Valley’s Overseas Chinese Town Grand Theatre is tailored for this show; with an oval main stage around Address: Overseas Chinese Town Grand Theatre, Happy Valley Beijing, Xiaowuji Road North, 60 meters long and over 2000 square meters big, and East, Chaoyang District the very first 360 degree rotation stage in the country, it allows the audience to enjoy a multi-angle performance Getting there: Take Subway to Happy Valley Scenic and proudly serves as Beijing’s ‘Number One Stage’. The Area Station theater is also equipped with advanced technology, for Tel: +86-10-51662527 example, the multimedia technology ‘rainscreen’ is used Time: First show 17:30-18:30, in the chapter of ‘Flood’ – gallons of water are poured Second show 19:30-20:30 from the stage; with the marvelous performances of Ticket price: Band A Seat $480 Yuan, the actors, it is the Chinese equivalent of Las Vegas’ Band B Seat $380 Yuan, musicals. Band C Seat $280 Yuan, VIP Seat $680 Yuan Website: http://www.jinmianwangchao.com/

10 Red Theatre “Legend of Kungfu”

This kungfu show comprises of various artistic elements including Chinese martial arts, acrobatics and dance, and Address: Chongwen Workers Cultural Palace, 44 chronicles the tough journey of the little monk Chun Yi. The Xingfu Street, Dongcheng District performance includes many different skills of Chinese martial Getting there: Take Subway to Tiantandongmen arts such as jumping, lying on nail plates, bearing heavy hammers, playing sharp spears, and jacking up with a naked Station, Exit B, and walk 1 km towards the body. Apart from various martial art performances such as tiger east fist, leopard fist, snake fist, duck fist, monkey fist, eagle fist and Tel: +86-10-51662527 scorpion fist, the show combines other elements including ballet, acrobatics and modern dance, and thus creates a brand-new Time: Morning show 17:15-18:30 , performance of profound Chinese martial arts. Night show 19:30 -20:45 Ticket price: Upstairs (2nd floor) $200 Yuan, Side rows From its debut, “Legend of Kungfu” has been watched by over a $280 Yuan, Rows 1-4 & 13-22 $380 Yuan, hundred foreign national leaders, -based ambassadors and Rows 5-6 & 11-12 $480 Yuan, VIP Rows ladies. National leaders and Beijing’s municipal, government 7-10 (plus picture and Olympic organizing committee leaders have also watched the show and left exceptional reviews. It is the only commercial album & snacks) $880 Yuan show that is on regular national tours and foreign tours in China, Website: http://www.gongfuchuanqi.net/ and is a world-famous brand of China’s show business.

11 Acrobatics Shows in Chaoyang Theatre

The shows are all about the oldest Chinese acrobatic arts. Gymnastic displays, multiple layers of glasses, Address: Chaoyang Theatre, 36 East somersaults, disc-rotating, contortion acts, hula-hoops North, Chaoyang District and gyroscopes are just some of the highlights; a Getting there: Take Subway to , number of extreme performances include blind skipping and turn left from Exit C1 and bicycling acrobatics. Flying acrobatics, which first took the stage in 1980 and has every move deeply Tel: +86-10-67498258 calculated, is a breathtaking display of physical agility Time: First show 16:00-17:00, Second show and one of the best acrobatic performances in the world! 17:30-18:30, Third show 19:00-20:00 Ticket price: Rows 1-4 $280 Yuan, Rows 13-14 $380 Established in 1984, Chaoyang Theatre has a main hall Yuan, Rows 11-12 $480 Yuan, Rows 9-10 and three theaters, and is a regular performance venue $580 Yuan, Rows 5-6 $680 Yuan, Rows for Wuqiao Acrobatics World. For over 20 years, the 7-8 VIP $880 Yuan theater has received over 3 million foreign guests; the amazing acrobatic performances have won over many Website: http://www.beijingzaji.com/ presidents, ministers, speakers and members of the Olympic organizing committee, being made known for the incomparable skills worldwide.

12 Peking Opera Shows in Liyuan Theatre

Liyuan Theatre is the first theater with table seating in Beijing. Since kicking off performances by beating the gongs in 1990, the Address: 1/F, Qianmen Jianguo Hotel, 175 Yong’an theater has staged over 4000 shows. The repertoire is the careful Road, selection of all famous Peking opera classics including Farewell My Concubine, The Crossroads, A Bird in a Cage and Drunken Getting there: Take Subway Line 7 to Hufang Bridge Beauty, all penned with great plot writing. Apart from drinking Station tea and watching the shows, visitors will have the opportunity Tel: +86-10-67498258 to watch the make-up process of the actors, take pictures with them, try out the costume and play with the opera masks, an Time: 19:30-20:40 all-round experience indeed. The performances are shown Ticket price: Back Seats $280 Yuan, Section 1 with Chinese and English subtitles, assuring the authenticity of (including refreshments) $380 Yuan, Peking opera. Section 3 (including refreshments) $380 Yuan, Section 2 (including refreshments) Located inside Qianmen Jianguo Hotel, Liyuan Theatre has hosted classic Peking opera performances since 1999, with a $480 Yuan, VIP Tables (including grand opera hall that fits up to a thousand visitors. The hall refreshments) $580 Yuan is decorated like an old Beijing opera theater to bring out the Website: http://www.liyuantheatreopera.com/ true flavors of Chinese traditional opera culture and draw the audience to it. The decorations include walls aligned with Chinese couplets and calligraphy, opera masks and Chinese folding screens (pingfeng).

13 Featured Bars

Beijing is likely to be the best city for nightlife in China, and has the country’s most vibrant bar scene. Chaoyang District, Sanlitun and Houhai are the landmarks of Beijing’s nightlife. This section will introduce 4 pleasingly decorated, chic bars.

14 Infusion Room

Hidden in Beijing’s famous night club D Lounge, Infusion Room is not the kind of bars you randomly run into. Walking up the dim-lighted stairs, visitors have to enter the passcode at the entrance to get in the most curious cocktail laboratory in Beijing. Behind all the classic and inventive drinks are the Taiwanese cocktail consultant Paul Hsu and Kevin Song, the manager of D Lounge and the Chinese champion of the Chivas Masters Cocktail Competition 2015. The drink menu, renewed every season, is going to settle your discriminating palate.

Address: D Lounge Upper Level, Courtyard 4 (opposite Rock and Roll Club), Workers’ Stadium North Road, Chaoyang District Tel: +86-10- 65937710 Time: 20:00-03:00 Website: https://www.facebook.com/infusionroomPeking

Nuoyan Rice Wine Bar

Formerly a Wuyutai tea house in the 70s, Nuoyan Rice Wine Bar has been turned into a cozy wine joint specializing in craft rice wine. The owner, a former interior designer and now the winemaker of this exquisite tavern, pioneered the glutinous rice winemaking system, which prepares premium handcrafted rice wine brewed from 45 days to 365 days and offers a variety of flavors ranging from Rose Damask to vanilla. Walking into the bar, you will be presented 6 wine samples by the owner and acquire a distinctive taste of rice wine

Address: People’s Art Printing House, 7 Banqiao South Alley, Beixinqiao, Dongcheng District Tel: +86-10- 64034336 Time: 11:30-01:30

15 D. lounge

Situated at the old mill in Sanlitun, D Lounge oozes a retro modern charm of an old black-greyish factory with an industrial iron gate and brickwork arches. Since its opening in 2009, it has been the definition of the cocktail industry in Beijing – changing its original menu regularly, and inviting world-class bartenders to mix a drink or two. It is an exclusive bar and also a luxury night club; you may get cozy with your friends and also dance a little. Many extravagant after-parties of film events and fashion shows are thrown here, making it a secret hangout for many Beijingers.

Address: Courtyard 4 (opposite Rock and Roll Club), Workers’ Stadium North Road, Chaoyang District Tel: +86-10-65937710 Time: 20:00-Late Night Website: http://www.dlounge.com.cn/

Janes + Hooch

With a very low-profile signboard and entrance, the inside of Janes + Hooch will surprise you with the old cool vibes of New York’s classic jazz in the 30s. Decorated with dark and metal elements, the vintage bar has reserved the exposed brickwork, wood-paneled walls and rusted brass ceilings of the Cultural Revolution, bathing in jazz, blues and doo-wop. The drink menu is extensive, quality-driven and distinctive; monthly menu rotation offers varied tastes and caters for both casual drinkers and cocktail experts.

Address: Building 10, 4 Workers’ Stadium North Road, Chaoyang District Tel: +86-10- 65032757 Time: 19 :00 – 02 :00 Website: http://janeshooch.com/

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17 北京市旅游发展委员会