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May-May's Diary
Entry for May 3, 1998
May Day was my day, boys and girls! I took advantage of the weather and the warm evenings to enjoy myself. Sitting outside at midnight at a couple of our city's nighttime venues was just wonderful. And I received several congratulatory emails from fans, for which thank you! I think all this talk of changing the name to May-May Day, however, is just too much. I think my title as Queen of Shanghai Nightlife, which is now official, is enough.
Did I mention a new bar/disco called Pink a couple of days ago? I went for a visit, and I think it could be quite an interesting place. It is on Tongren Lu just south of Nanjing Lu, opposite the Kerry Centre which will open in July. Pink is not open yet either, but I understand detailed plans are being drawn up to launch it with a bang. I am not sure about the spray-paint scrawls across the wall. But the basic structure is good, with two floors and a well in the middle, like a mini New York New York. They are talkiing about have live music, and with Malone's and the Hard Rock Cafe just around the corner, and Kerry opening any minute now, business could be good. Good luck, Mr Dong (that's the owner)!
I have received a simply charming email from Michael Bernstein who says: "May-May - As a former resident of Shanghai now living in the States, let me first take this opportunity to say Bravo! You do a great job updating those living in Shanghai and elsewhere about the various goings on in the Pearl of the Orient."
Well, Michael, darling!! Blush blush!! Thank you thank you!! I live for accolades and praise!! But back to his note:
A couple of weeks back, you mentioned that you'd heard about an establishment which has telephones on all the table near the Guidu (Equatorial). I could be wrong, but I think it is the Beverly (Bihuali) Club at the corner of
Yanan and Wulumuqi. At least it was when I left in the summer of 1996.
With the pace of change in Shanghai, it could have been gone a week after I
left."
Telephones on the tables in the Beverly Club? I don't remember seeing any. But maybe I had my extra-thick sunglasses on when I was last there. Anyway, it is about to become academic as the Beverly Club will be demolished any minute now as part of the Yanan Lu West highway project. Rather that than destroy the Kadoorie Mansion on the other side of the road, that's for sure!!
I understand from the people at Shanghai-ed that Star Television in Hong Kong wants me to go on camera and introduce the exciting and bustling nightlife of Shanghai to their satellite viewers across Asia. Well!!! I knew it was just a matter of time before I made the transition from Internet to television!!
Byeeeee!!!
Entry for April 29, 1998
Big news, boys and girls! Coco is back in town!! I bumped into him the other night, and he gave me a big hug. Coco, if you have only recently joined the May-May fan club, is a jazz singer and man-about-town. You can see his photo, with a spike stuck through his tongue (yuck!!), in the photograph section of Shanghai-ed. So, I asked Coco how things were going in Paris, and he said he is engaged to be married!!! Yes, it's true!! I have always thought that Coco will one day make some man a wonderful wife, and it looks like it might come true! Truth is, as always, stranger than fiction.
I went to dinner these evening with a couple of my Shanghai girlfriends, and one said something which sent a shudder up my spine. Fear of the future stopped me cold dead. We were talking about make-up (as usual!) and where to buy it, and one of my friends mentioned a department store on Nanjing Road East. "I don't like to go down there," said my other friend. "There's nowhere to park!"
Do you see the significance of this comment, my loves??!! My friend -- who I must repeat is Shanghainese -- drives a car. She doesn't ride a bike or take taxis. She drives. Now, think about it. If everyone in Shanghai owned their own car, just like in the United States or Germany, what IS this city of ours going to become??!! And to think that the first Buick is supposed to roll off the assembly line at the General Motors factory in Pudong by the end of this year.
Speaking of cars, the traffic seems to have been particularly bad the past few days, but this is just the beginning. My friends the taxi drivers tell me work on the Yanan Lu West elevated highway will begin on May 25. Already buildings are being torn down on either side of the road. It is going to be hell once work starts, although luckily I am usually only travelling around the city late at night when traffic is reasonably light. All I can say is: Let's get started and get it over with quickly!! Once it's done, it will be fine. Yanan Lu East is now a dream to travel along. It's lost some of its charm of course, but when you're trying to get from one side of the city to the other quickly, charm is not the first thing you want in a road!!
Yesterday, I went to Pudong with Jack, a friend of mine who is in real estate. He runs a company which does mostly residential work, and he has been trying to get me to buy an apartment for some time. I said: Pudong??!!! But when I went over there, I found it wasn't as bad as I thought. And my friend said he believed that if you choose the right property, there is significant money to be in the coming years. Pudong is going places, and no matter how much I love Puxi, I think I have to accept that. I can see I will have to start a new report just on Pudong nightlife before too long!!!
The drive back to Puxi was quite long because of the traffic, and Jack and I talked for a long time. He really is very knowledgeable about the property situation in Shanghai. He's been back now for two or three years, and is as enthusiastic about real estate as I am about bars and restaurants!!! I've suggested that he do a real estate report for Shanghai-ed just like mine, and maybe he will. Hope so!!
A couple of days ago, I was over at Sasha's enjoying the sunshine outside, when I noticed four young ducklings coming towards me, stopping occasionally to drink from puddles along the way. Ducks!!! Does this mean Sasha's is a Duck Shop??!!! Just joking!!
Byeeeee!!!
Entry for April 28, 1998
Boys and girls, I am afraid I must report another casualty in the Nightlife wars of Shanghai - Adam's Show Zone, that brave male-oriented dance club on the corner of Fuxing Lu and Huashan Lu -- it is no more!! I was walking past there last night and the Coca-Cola sign, which is still blinking, was the only sign of life. What a shame. But that's Life. Charles Darwin would no doubt have approved!!!
I spotted the death of Adam as I was walking home from the Cotton Club, which on Tuesday evenings is doing just wonderful business. Cuddly man-mountain Matthew has an "open mike" night, which means anyone can get and play or sing. I wouldn't be seen dead up there myself, and I wish some of the people who DO push themselves forward would take the same position!! But it's still several notches above karaoke, and the atmosphere is sweaty and wonderful! Perfect for ordering another round of beer, which I suspect is Matthew's REAL motivation.
Bars open, bars close. There's a new bar/disco called Pink in an extremely good location on the corner of Nanjing Lu and Tongren Lu. At least it LOOKS extremely good. If there's a golden intersection in town, it's this one. There's the Shanghai Centre and the Hard Rock Cafe just a few steps away, and the Kerry Centre of Robert Kwok is about to open right there. BUT!!! I think we are dealing with the same fengshui forces that kill all entertainment activities on Yanan Lu, just to the south.
There has been a restaurant on that corner called, I think, Westlands, for years. I have passed it three million times, and I have never even stepped inside!!! Now tell me, is this normal? No. So I am presuming supernormal forces are at work. Pink could turn to Black pretty quickly, then. BUT (again)!! I wonder if a pact with the devil would help turn away the evil fengshui forces? If I was the owner of Pink I would consider it!!
I just mentioned the Kerry Centre -- I have high hopes for this. One of my very best friends works there and showed me round. The building is not yet finished - it's due to open at the end of July -- but you can already see that it will provide some stiff competition for the Shanghai Centre. It's doing the same things exactly -- high-class shops and restaurants, high-class offices and high-class apartments. Oooooh! Competition, Goliaths fighting it out! Such excitement!!!
Good grief! May-May getting excited about a real estate battle? What on earth is happening to me? Time for another nightlife patrol!!!
Byeeeee!!!
Entry for April 27, 1998
What a busy weekend! And I'm told the days here in Shanghai were full of sunshine, although I saw little of it myself!! I spent the time between waking up and heading out on my nightly patrols surfing the Internet. I found several interesting sites. First, there was a site showing the latest pictures of the "face" on Mars, which is apparently not a face at all. Or so they say!! But here's the website which I found most amazing. Not attractive, just extraordinary. Click here, but remember to come back afterwards!! I spend quite a lot of time just surfing round looking at new places on the Internet, and if you like my loves, I will pass some of them on to you. Not everyone has as much spare time as me!!
I don't know if you've noticed, but the Germans have invaded Shanghai! There's a big consumer goods exhibition at the Shanghai Exhibition Centre with nightly entertainment of various kinds. The other night, I bumped into a large gaggle of German models in one bar, looking quite glamorous but very bored. I tried talking to one of them, a pretty girl from Berlin, but she had her eye on someone on the other side of the room the whole time. And the male models, while quite attractive, were even more distant!
I hear the Blues and Jazz Bar, a regular haunt for Germans in Shanghai, has closed down for the entire week of the exhibition and moved operations to the Cypress Hotel where many of the visitors are staying. A daring move indeed! But worth a trip out there, if only to see their cute waiters!!!
Byeeeee!!!
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