dispence

Clubs:

Cargo 3.5/5
Location: West Gate Workers Stadium
Cover: 30RMB

Albeit it’s small dance floor, Cargo’s DJs know how to throw down the beats. Playing traditional house, the club is fairly new with modern decor. Entering through a winding, narrow hall brings you to the bar. Small tables surround the dance floor and bar, bigger ones are up a few steps on both sides. Some stretch deep into the smoky haze. The trendy interior goes well with the crowd of Audi-driving locals.

Coco Banana 4.8/5
Location: West Gate Workers Stadium
Cover: 50RMB

Between psychedelic lighting, flame-twirling bartenders, dancers on pedestals and authentic Chinese house, Coco Banana hardly disappoints. Two things prevent Coco from getting a perfect 5 out of 5: A small dance floor and comparatively low-frills restrooms. Coco Banana is your standard Chinese house club. Enter and be amazed by a weight sensitive floor creating ripples in the water image projected from above. Small fish swim away, frightened, leading you to the bar. You must appreciate Chinese house music to appreciate this club – although DJs will occasionally spin some western hip hop. The ceiling is packed with volleyball sized disco balls above the dance floor. Spreading out away from the floor, over tables and beyond, are half folded light slabs. In what is probably one of the more sophisticated lighting effects in Beijing, the ceiling is a wave of colored light. Rainbows dissolve into solid blues, greens and reds. Between dance sets, bartenders jump on their square bar and twirl flaming bottles with ease. Tables off the main dance area don’t provide much protection from the deafening beats being enjoyed by a very local crowd.

GT Banana 5/5
Location: Scitech Hotel, No. 22 Jianguomenwai Ave, Chaoyang Dist.
Cover: 50RMB, more for special guest DJs

A 25 foot high visualization screen. Second floor balconies overlooking mobs of dancers below. Private tables in futuristic cubby holes. Dancers in cages suspended from the ceiling. A crowd-responsive bouncy dance floor. All this makes GT Banana Beijing’s mega club. Brining in world renown DJs like Tiesto (pictured) and Paul Van Dyk, GT doesn’t disappoint. Huge crowds are common, especially during big shows.
The club’s private table areas are expansive. Both upstairs and down offers several options. Take one just off the action, or find some hidden away for a small break in the intensity of sound pumped by international DJs. Upstairs, tables at the balcony’s edge provide prime, private viewing space. There’s even a whole section dedicated for private parties. On top of that, a private room with its own mini balcony to take in the club’s beats.
GT’s one downside is its location. It’s downtown, a 15RMB taxi ride from the Sanlitun bar street and Workers Stadium area. But at the same time, it attracts a more high class crowd driving not the usual Audi or Porsche SUV but Ferraris.

Mix 4/5
Location: Worker’s Stadium North Gate
Cover: 50RMB

In a word: crowded. On a Friday night Beijing’s original hip-hop club was absolutely packed. The first warning sign should have been the difficult in check coats. No single coats were being accepted, only plastic bags full of several from group members. The dance floor was crowded leaving no room for any real dancing. Skilled DJs provided great music and mixes but the heat and multitudes of dancers was not worth it. Tequila shots came with an orange, not a lemon. Need a rest? Get a quick back massage from bathroom attendants. Three rooms provide basically the same music. One bar area with tables and a decent dance floor gives way to a maze of dark, mirrored corridors leading to toilets, private rooms and what looked like KTV. A small, steep staircase opens up on another floor above. Walk towards the north entrance and find another huge dance floor with yet another DJ.

The World of Suzie Wong 4.5/5
Location: West Gate, Chaoyang Park
Cover: 50RMB

Reminiscent of an opium den, The World of Suzie Wong is a classy, sophisticated nightclub off the main drag. Instead of hoards of college students, Suzie Wong is frequented by Beijing’s elite ex-pats. Westerners sitting at small tables near the bar or getting down to excellent house beats greatly outnumber locals. A small dance floor sits at the end of a long, narrow lower floor. A flashy ceiling doesn’t create too much light and the room is lit dark like a chill bar, not a mega-club. The bar is long and narrow too, between it and the dance floor are small tables flanked by larger ones on each wall. Head upstairs and find another bar with more music. Outside is an open-air patio, but during the cold Beijing winter venture into one of the many private rooms complete with beds and couches where you can sip expensive drinks while smoking your favorite cigar.

Vic’s 4/5
Location: Worker’s Stadium North Gate
Cover: 50RMB

Two dance floors will leave almost everyone in your party satisfied. Adjacent to the decent sized bar is the hip-hop dance floor. Ample space makes this one of the bigger dance floors this reviewer has encountered. For a break in the action hop up a quick flight of stairs to balconies with tables overlooking the drunken ciaos below. Behind the DJs is a four feet high screen playing random music videos with no relation to the music. Foreign DJs are flown in often and provide the latest western beats. Walking down the hall creates a perfect, natural music transition to House. Here, the dance floor, as well as the room, is smaller. There are more tables and a second set of DJs dishing the house beats. Another visualization screen makes this second room feel like a miniature club of its own.

Propaganda 3/5
Location: WuDaoKou
Cover: Depends on night, gender, student status

This frequent party stop for foreign students from the several nearby universities is best compared to an American college fraternity. That means the place is packed with sweaty students clambering for cheap drinks. The dance floor is especially dark and hot. It’s in the basement. Club goers may be hit with a cover fee, but a student ID often gets you in for free.