Your guide to Shanghai's new "gay district"
Deep in the bowels of Xuhui District lies the promising foundation for the future of the gay scene in Shanghai. Judging from the recent conversations about real estate I've been having with my fellow gays, many of us are looking to step up shop in this new "gayborhood" (stolen from Philadelphia's gay district). If you live in this part of the Former French Concession, you better watch out because the gays are coming!

After some recent bad news (more on that later), this latest discovery has this columnist in a spin. As much as I would just love to take out my tour group flag to give everyone in Shanghai a tour of Xuhui's gay district, it's not in the cards. For now, a tour via this column will have to do. The tour starts with the community's mainstay-Eddy's Bar-located near the intersection of Tianping Lu and Huaihui Lu. If getting a drink menu shoved in your face isn't your thing, conveniently located across Huaihui Lu from Eddy's is Shanghai Studio. With Club Deep closing last Halloween, it's been a hot spot lately on weekend nights due to its three bars. It's not all drinking establishments however. The restaurant Arch is just seconds away on Wukang Lu. While Arch isn't strictly a gay restaurant, the decor and patronage suggest otherwise. No offense, I'm just stating the obvious.

The latest addition to the area is a "new" bar called Transit. It's not really new because the bar used to be located in the tall apartment building above Shanghai Studio. At that time, the bar was a bit exclusive, catering to mostly Japanese patrons. When I tried asking people about the bar, people would say that they either had never heard of it or choose the more popular answer, "I was there once and it was basically like someone¡¯s apartment." Needless to say, I had never been there before.

With the bar at its new location at the corner of Huashan Lu and Tai'an Lu, the bar brings a touch of Japanese flair to the "gayborhood." With a more accessible location, I expect Transit to find a welcoming spot within the community. For the gay community this is welcoming news after a few weeks of storm and drag. Yet another club, PinkHome, was raided a few weeks ago because of drugs, just like Club Deep. PinkHome was down for the count for a few weeks, but that was just enough time for rumors to begin floating around about new clubs opening soon. Maybe one day we'll finally have a gay club scene that we are proud of.

Pete