A Guide to Beijing's Red-Hot Nightlife

It wasn't long ago that the capital of China frowned upon Western-style nightlife, instead encouraging its diligent labor masses to seek the comfort of pillows and shut eye.

Things have certainly changed. 

Although Beijing nightlife doesn't have the debauchery of Tokyo, panache of Hong Kong or global "wow" of Shanghai, it offers a mix-and-match of all the above in a diverse scene that has a little something for everybody.

A surge of Olympic investment has brought a plethora of new nightlife options for 2008, with new club openings hitting the city almost on a weekly basis. Here are the best of the bunch currently dominating the Beijing nightlife circuit. 

Klubb Rouge

In the penthouse of Beijing's China View Building, a former (designer) Starck protégée creates a bourgeoisie bohemia of communist decadence that is a balancing act between supper club and disco.

Raw concrete floors create an edgy ambiance accentuated by black walls, Mao-red seating areas in cubist shapes and simple grey-cushioned chairs above metal frames. 

Walls feature provocative 3-D artworks of scantily clad women that look like pixilated cutouts from Madonna's "Rain" video. The centerpiece of Rouge is an elaborate light installation of some-1,000 red hand-blown Murano-glass pendants and 8,000 LED lights located above a 40-foot bar.

Chinadoll
In the middle of Sanlitun, Chinese actress and socialite Ai Wan creates a hip-hop dance and lounge sanctuary known as Chinadoll. It's been one of the hottest nightclubs in town since opening in June as a decadent pink-and-metal dance den popular with Beijing badboy actors and musicians.