Houhai Bar Street Silenced as Open-Air Sales Banned

Shichahai bar street's notorious reputation as a noisy and rowdy tourist destination has come to an end as a year-long, city-wide crackdown on building regulations finally touches down in Houhai.

Years of neighborhood complaints about noise have finally culminated in a city order to ban all area bars from selling alcohol outside, resulting in the total removal of all outdoor bar seating.

Beijing authorities have also cracked down on building code violators, banning local bars from conducting business on rooftops and second-stories.

Over 4,000 square meters of business space that did not comply with local regulations have been torn down. Four bars have been shuttered, including Bar 6.8 and Houhai #5.

After new regulations were unveiled last December, the popular tourist spot has been on the receiving end of 1,300 certification violations affecting some 740 businesses. The new regulations also make it difficult for any new businesses from setting up shop in the commercialized area, already home to 168 bars.

Zhang Weichang, a Beijing resident who was one of the first people to open a guitar bar in Houhai, welcomes the crackdown. "The old businesses here support the quieting down of Shichahai," said Zhang, who admits that the noise of the bar street has become too loud. "I can understand why neighboring residents complained," he said.

Others are admitting Houhai has lost its way as a cultural area.

Shichahai commercial association director Duan Yunsong thinks area businesses should have longer-term goals rather than trying to make short-term gains. "Traditional culture was usurped by private businesses," he admitted.

Nevertheless, Duan has high hopes for Houhai's future. Duan wants area businesses to "inherit wine culture with Chinese characteristics," thereby emulating traditional Chinese wine shops rather than the Western-styled bars that have opened throughout the area.

Duan also said the future of Houhai is dependent upon giving a new vitality to laozihao, a term describing century-old businesses that have carried on the city's local traditions.

However, with many laozihao businesses forced out of Houhai due to "illegal construction," Duan could instead be referring to the "image" of laozihao. In this scenario, new buildings are constructed to emulate traditional Chinese architecture, even though they may be at the expense of historical Beijing buildings.

Beijing considers the newly-refurbished Qianmen tourist destination to be a laozihao location along with other future developments.

Serving as the northern terminus of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, Houhai takes in some 40 million visitors a year.

We admit that it would be nice to enjoy this beautiful lakeside park without having to contend with the cacophony of music pumped out by competing bars. And yet, we're not sure if Beijing is ready to accept a so-called "Chinese wine shop" when the city's most recent cultural export has been the "Beijing bikini."

Without the draw of its bar street, we wonder if Houhai can "Give Me One Reason (to Stay Here)" just as can be heard sung in every Shichahai bar by every guitar-singer combo every night.

Images: NetEase (163.com), Weibo.com, Guilin1314.com

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