Chengdu Nightlife

[nexfoto]

Does anyone know Chengdu nightclubs with dance floors like M2 in Shanghai or Vics in Beijing?

 

Thanks!

[ZhangKaiRong]

Club 88 is the hottest nightclub in Chengdu - at least last year it was. It is smaller than M2, but still a good place to have a good party, and the girls are really beautiful there

[nexfoto]

Thanks! Any other clubs where people actually dance and don't just sit around and play games?

[nexfoto]

Am looking for Chongqing recommendations as well. Again, clubs with dance floors! 

[ZhangKaiRong]

In Chengdu, you can try the Babi (there are two Babis if I remember correctly) or Ta&Ta, if you haven't been there already. But in my view, these are inferior compared to Club 88.

 

Please take note that both Chengdu and Chongqing are in Western China, and they are - luckily - far less international than Beijing, Shanghai or even Guangzhou, therefore the clubbing scene is less colorful and duller. Chatting with your friend on WeChat and drinking some kind of cocktail at a table in a "fancy" club means partying according to most Chinese. You should get used to it or go to Shanghai or Beijing, where the nightlife is driven by the young expats.

[ChTTay]

I went to a place called 零点 on a monday night at 2am and it was banging. Absolutely full. However, we were the only two foreigners. The Chinese in there were a mix of students and working types. Ages were probably 18-27.

I enjoyed it anyway but it was a very Chinese club. Apparently it is well known for staying open late so people converge their. Well, Chinese people at least.

We actually got out of a taxi at some bar / club street and everything was closing/dying. We met this guy on the street and asked him for advice, he said go to Ling Dian. We just said that to a taxi driver and he knew instantly where to go.

Actually, i was already pretty far gone by this point so maybe Ling Dian is an awful place. I don't remember specifics.

[NotChinese]

'Only' is the best club in Chengdu, for dancing.

 

There's another one called 'Disco', which is pretty much the same format as Only, but it's usually much less busy. It's a bit further away from the main club area.

 

My friends and I used to go to Only very regularly, it's completely different from the typical Chinese club scene. Of course it has the booths and all that nonsense (sorry it's just not my thing), but the dance floor is always packed and I personally like the music. It's not the typical boring globally recognised club beat, it's a bit harder and you can properly dance to it. I dunno what genre to put it in though - I'll just always hear it and think, "Now that is Chinese club music."

 

Saturday nights are better than Fridays.

 

I heard that Only is actually a gay club, but I never got that feeling. Friday has a lot more guys but it seems to be more of a 'natural' gender imbalance, rather than any sort of homosexual gravitation going on. I've had Chinese guys get a little too close to me, but even if it really is a gay club, it's not overt at all and feels neutral as any other club I've ever been to. Saturdays usually seemed like a good mixed crowd. Plenty of sexy girls, if that's what you're after.

 

Sometimes you (and your friends) will be the only group of foreigners in there, and on other occasions there may be others others. It's getting more popular. It's still very much a Chinese place, however, so it stills feels like a fun 'I'm in China' experience. There are other clubs in Chengdu which are very popular with foreigners and get very busy, but I HATE them as they're exactly the same as back home.

 

Plus, these 'other' clubs I mention have barely got dancefloors, they're full of foreigners and the club is more of a non-Chinese layout, which can be nice, yet I still think the danceloor at Only is way bigger, way more packed, and way more awesome, with better music too.

 

And of course to avoid the nuisance of having to buy a table or whatever, you can just exit the club and cross the street to buy some baijiu or whatever to top up your 'fuel' levels. Or, inside Only, there actually is a bar, but you can only buy cocktails and they're fairly expensive. Having said that, just one cocktail and you will be completely wasted very quickly.

 

Only is on the main club street next to JiuYanQiao.

 

Regarding the first response to this thread, last year - About Club88 - I went in there once. Very similar vibe to Only, apart from one of the staff had pretty much forced us in there off the street, took us to a table, then asked for 400Kuai from us. In Only you just walk in and do what you like. Much better. Also I disagree about the Chengdu club scene being dull and lifeless. I arrived here in September 2014, which is only a few months since the 'dull' comments were made. This city isn't dull at all. Maybe it depends on what you're after. I'm certainly not one to shy away from the odd night of getting rather drunk. To be honest I've had better nights out here than I did last year when I was in London...!

[studychinese]

Jellyfish. Just don't drink the alcohol.

[nexfoto]

@NotChinese,

wish you had posted this earlier! I'll give Only a try next time I am in Chengdu. Thanks!

 

@studychinese,

Jellyfish was the only decent "club" I found during my stay

[ZhangKaiRong]

@NotChinese

 

Please re-read my comment. I didn't say that Chengdu is dull - actually, it is my favorite Chinese city, next to Chongqing, hands down. I just wanted to highlight the fact that Chinese clubbing habits couldn't be compared to the European/American one, and it is very obvious in less internationalized cities - and Chengdu was one of this kind of cities back in 2012/2013. If you had more fun in Chengdu than in London, then it might be the case you were not in the good places in London.

[NotChinese]

Sorry if I hit a nerve. 

 

London would be extremely fun... if I could afford it!

 

I just find that it's easier to have a good, simple fun time here in general, and not just by playing the 老外 card.

 

It also my be because I'm British so London is just a bigger version of a British city to me. The clubs are all average, until you pay a small fortune to go to something of any worth, but then it loses its value because the entry price was too much of a sting. Chengdu has none of those issues. Come to think of it, there's only one club here where you need to pay for entry - Tag - and surprise surprise it's one of the major foreigner hotspots, and is owned by Europeans.

[aymen]

TAG is actually not owned by foreigners, as my friend Ellen runs it (though there is a partnership going on, of course). In the end it all comes down to the music you enjoy. I personally enjoyed TAG... I found it to be better than most clubs in Beijing (pretty nice crowd and decent electronic music). I didn't think it was a foreigner hotspot either, just a cool club with cool locals and expats. I think if you're into house and/or techno music, you'll just end up there anyway. At least that's what I've felt last time - can't wait to properly settle down in the city and discover more of it.

[NotChinese]

Interesting that you know the owner (I take it Ellen is a Chinese person with an adopted Western name??). It's interesting because when I was there a Dutch guy introduced himself to me as the owner... haha.

 

I agree Tag isn't necessarily a bad place but I've never really agreed with paying an entry fee to a club. I mean there's never a fee to get into a restaurant, bar or anything like that, even though it's the same kind of set up - a place to have a good time where the profit is made on the exchange of money for food and alcohol. Requesting an entry fee seems almost arrogant to me.

 

Also - music taste - I don't know if it's still the same as it was last year but for me the best place hands down is/was Only. I'm returning to China to travel for 3 months this summer and I'm worryingly looking forward to reliving the Only experience when I get to Chengdu. (I say 'worryingly' because I really should be more excited about the wider, open-road, adventurous aspect of the travel I'm planning to do. Nostalgia is a funny thing!)

[JorgeRamirez]

In my opinion best nightclub in Chengdu is Jellyfish. They have 2 clubs, both of them very cool, for foreigners I highly recommend to visit this clubs... good music and good atmosphere mixing chinese and foreigners. The name of the clubs are JellyONE and Jellyfish LKF.

[studychinese]

Don't drink the alcohol in Jellyfish. I was ordering Bacardi. It was immediately apparent that it wasn't real Bacardi. Ended up having 5, which I can easily take, and getting VERY sick because it is fake alcohol.

[JorgeRamirez]

I dont think you are right "studychinese" you have several places in Chengdu with fake alcohol like Space. Jellyfish have very good cocktails and bartenders.

[nexfoto]

Jellyfish in Chengdu was a nice experience!
 

I failed to find a subforum for Chongqing, so I thought you guys could help me out one more time.

Any clubs with (dancefloors and people dancing!) you can recommend for Chongqing?