Your Ultimate Partying Guide to Wudaokou
Surrounded by Beida, Tsinghua, and BLCU, Wudaokou is always packed with students sampling the local nightlife thanks to the ridiculously low-priced drinks, loud music, and the carefree messiness that comes with being young. After the surprise closure of most of Wudaokou’s bars and clubs in January, we decided to trek back up northwest to see which venues live on, and can confirm that most places have reopened to welcome a new wave of students arriving for the spring semester. Unfortunately, we’ve had to say goodbye to Global Club, but fear not, there are still a host of bars, clubs and KTV places where you can sing, dance or drink your night away.
The ever-reliable Lush is a favourite (smoke-free!) student hangout thanks to its king-sized cocktails, all-day breakfasts, and legendary burgers (half price between 1am and 3am). They even host a weekly pub quiz on Wednesdays and open mic nights on Thursdays, which are guaranteed fun nights out. During the daytime, you can study there with good coffee and free 5G VPN-enabled Wi-Fi. If you don’t want to brave the outside world, their food delivery is particularly handy if you're ill, the pollution's too high, or you're just plain hungover.
If you want to practice your beer pong skills, head on over to Pyro Pizza (formerly known as Sugar Shack) on Thursday nights where you can win a bottle of spirits in their weekly competition. Owned by the same people as Lush, their New York-style thin crust pizzas are the best in Wudaokou and is definitely worth a visit at lunchtime (midday-2pm), when there is an all-you-can-eat pizza buffet. Pyro also runs a smoke-free policy.
Next door is Yummy Box, offering cheap drinks to wash down (and hopefully forget) their Chicago deep-dish pizzas and massive burgers. The walls are plastered with everything American, including license plates and beer bottles. If you can nab a booth, you can compete against your friends in old school video games while waiting for your refreshments to arrive. Pub quiz and ladies night are held in unison on Wednesdays – the free cocktails should be drunk with one word of caution: only consume them if you think the alcohol will help improve your general knowledge.
For a Latin vibe, La Bamba offers good music, inexpensive drinks, and a lot of nachos. Its two floors are always guaranteed to be busy; despite now being linked to The Steps Bar (apparently for fire safety regulations), it can still be hard to find a table, especially on weekends. Both offer their joint student loyalty card, which gives you more discounts on the already cheap food and drinks – Tsingtao for RMB 10, anyone?
Whilst The Bridge Café is no longer open 24/7, they still offer decently priced food and alcohol until 2am. If you stay out late enough, you can sample their delicious breakfast menu when the doors open at 7am sharp. Always the place to go for interesting talks or screenings, it is the best place for a quieter drink or a studious evening holed up.
Like two peas in a pod, Dopamine and Propaganda are the two main clubs along Heqing Road with cheap, and sometimes even free, drinks – especially during ladies nights on Thursdays at Propaganda. Blasting deafening R&B and pop music, both clubs have similar drinks menus and equally grimy basements; they always seem to be the most popular places to end the night in Wudaokou.
A little off the beaten track, if you can find it on Chengfu Road, 13 Club is a great spot for live music in Wudaokou in a smaller, grungier setting. Bands, more often of the rock and metal variety, pay a visit on the weekend and make for the perfect alternative night out for a local live music fix.
Even further outside of the beating heart of Wudaokou, along Zhanchunyuan West Road, Commune almost feels like a classy pub with its bright lights and wooden décor. Don’t be fooled though; the drinks are still dirt-cheap and it gets packed on weekends. Commune sometimes hosts Latin nights if you want to salsa the night away somewhere closer to home than Gulou.
Located above Commune on the third floor, Windows is the opposite to its "classy" neighbor downstairs. Full of flags, moody lighting and pounding music, it is worth the extra walk up the two flights of stairs. Come here on the weekends if you want to dance with a different crowd and better music than what is playing at Dopamine and Propaganda.
Offering a wider variety of drinks, Global Warehouse lets you pick a basketful of beers and other drinks from their supermarket-style top floor. Heading downstairs into the haze of smoke, you can play beer pong, dice games or sip cocktails in the surprisingly large and comfy chairs.
In the basement of U-Center lies Wu Club, you have to weave through a maze of tables and chairs to reach the tiny, packed dancefloor. What it lacks in space, it makes up for with cheap drinks. Probably best avoided if you want to skip the crowds and creepy guys.
If singing is more your thing, try any of the KTV places on the top floor of Donglian Plaza for reasonable prices and classic Chinese and old Western pop songs. And of course no night would be complete without a jianbing – the Beijing savory egg pancake – from any of the local street food carts to soak up all the alcohol in your stomach.
Be young, be safe, and have fun Wudaokou!
Images: Hannah Mei-Grisley
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