Oh Shanghai, Shanghai, why can't you be more like your older brother?

I visited the capital at the weekend and have to say that the bars in Beijing could drink the bars in Shanghai under the table (and then dance on it).

Most of my drinking was done around two areas: Nanluoguxiang which is like Taikang Lu if you demolished all of the pointless jewelery shops and put in cool bars full of home-flavoured Rum, and Sanlitun which is a bit like Tongren Lu but with Belgian Beers instead of Fillipino Prostitutes.

Not only are the bars cooler, filled with people dancing instead of playing dice and looking to see who ordered the Champagne, but they're cheap too. At one point I ordered a round of three drinks in a bar called 12 Sq M ("Beijing's smallest bar- we speak fluent Chinglish" says the sign)- and the bill came to 50RMB.

50RMB.

Somebody pass me the chalk, I'm going to do a little reckoning here:

Return flight to Beijing = 600 RMB Large draft beer in Shanghai = 30RMB Large draft beer in Beijing = 15RMB

600 / 15 = 40.

So after my 40th large draft beer of a weekend, everything else is pure profit.

Who's up for a return trip?

My Favourite bars of the weekend:

Salud - Nanluoguxiang

An old timbered building (watch your head on the beams) that makes its own flavoured Rum behind the bar. 20RMB for a shot glass of ginger, apple & cinammon, orange & nutmeg etc. The Salud Special Spice flavour on the rocks was the best thing I drank in Beijing. And I drank a lot.

Poachers Inn - Sanlitun

50RMB to get in sounds a bit steep, but that included a pint glass full of Rum & Coke. The music was mainly hip-hop (from Pink to the Jungle Brothers) which got the local kids dancing on the tables and throwing their hands way up in the ai-ir. Bonkers fun atmosphere, horrible toilets- (this is sometimes a good thing).

The Tree - Sanlitun

A real wood-burning pizza oven is going to make you sweat in the summer heat, but they have a list of maybe 40 imported beers to cool you down. Artwork on the walls showed naked boobies but in a classy way.

Pass By Bar - Nanluoguxiang

A like being an African colonial house, a bit like sitting in the waiting room for the Orient Express. Lots of travel books everywhere, it's probably full of class A arseholes on a Saturday night- but on a Sunday with the rain falling softly on the tin roof...sigh.

More of my Beijing tips.