Most people in the bar/club business can agree on one thing. The lifespan of the typical club is not long in Shanghai. Only in a few rare cases do clubs last longer than the 3 year mark.

A lot of clubs are opened by local Chinese with too much money on their hands. They go into a club, and think, “hey this is cool, I’ll open a club too! I can make money and have fun!”. Unfortunately this spells ultimate doom for these clubs that are supposed to somehow magically just work. It takes more than money and hope to run a successful business guys!

For those few that have made it, like Guandii and Babyface, they have hit a goldmine. Though, even established places like Park 97 are feeling the strain these days.

Anyhow, the newer clubs in Shanghai are getting more and more ambitious. With the new Pier 1 complex, Wynn Wins or whatever it’s called and the like, these clubs are getting outrageously large and expensive. Can Shanghai sustain these clubs? I doubt it, but time will tell.

Keep an eye out for Arena club-house and Juli-Anna Bar/Club/Music Place, two new clubs which, like all the others claim to have “something different” that will attract hordes of customers.