Hospitality – Fast changing Shanghai

For a string of events I’m cruising through the city these days, visiting hotels and bars. It was a long overdue confrontation with the fast changes Shanghai is undergoing. I had already accepted that I would run into so many new hotels that opened their doors without telling me and have no problem whatsoever to fill up their rooms.
But also the bar-scene is expanding and changing. The Shanghai Foreign Correspondents Club has to leave its regular meeting place at Sasha’s because management wants to set up a private club on our third floor. So I had to look for new third floors, were we can meet. Malone’s has a nice third floor, but one of the oldest bars in Shanghai – counting already a respectable ten years – is going to rebuild everything. “Why don’t you try The Mint, down Tongren Lu, manager Paul of Malone’s suggested.
I could not recall that bar, but saw it had replaced the former La Belle, where I had different functions. Inside this bar, for the sexy people – equipped with huge beds – I discovered why this tasteful bar had to change its name. ‘La Belle’ would be a hard sell during the ‘boys only’ events. They could have called it ‘Le Beau’, the male variation of ‘La Belle’, but this was even better. Just imagine Chinese official of the Ministry of Culture might even read French.