Hong Kong Nightlife
Hong Kong may now be part of China, but when it comes to nightlife, this city can party with the best of the West. There are literally hundreds of top bars and clubs in Hong Kong, all waiting to be discovered and become the next big thing in this vibrant city. New York may be the city that never sleeps, but Hong Kong would certainly give the Big Apple a run for its money in any wager over that particular moniker. From the most trendy bars where the coolest people in town hang out to the smaller, less self-conscious places in the backstreets, Hong Kong's bars offer something for everyone. While the pubs that attract the business people and cool clans are not cheap, the quieter ones more often than not are. These also offer a more interesting take on Hong Kong and can provide a better insight into the soul of the city than the most famous bars can. The city is split between two areas, the Island and Kowloon. The Lan Kwai Fon or Central district on the Island is the most popular with tourists and locals alike at night time, largely due to the close proximity of all the various bars. With the warm air wafting through the city and people enjoying their drinks in and around the bars, Lan Kwai Fon comes alive as the sun begins to set and always hosts a lively and convivial atmosphere. Still on the Island, the Wanchai area is also a popular place for travellers to enjoy a tipple, not least because it plays host to the famous Suzy Wong bar, although visitors should not be fooled as this is not the original, which disappeared some years ago. However, you always get what you pay for and this area, which is full of the bright neon signs making it reminiscent of New York's Times Square, is not cheap. Sports fans might want to head to Delaney's in Wanchai, which has a huge television screen and a number of smaller ones, meaning that there is almost always some event on and more often than not various sports at the same time. When it comes to clubbing, the Lan Kwai Fon district is where most of the action takes place. With a number of bars which smoothly turn into clubs as the night draws on, the area is a perfect place to start and end the night. Places such as Drop or Club C offer a good mix of international DJs and the clientele is a variety of locals, expats and visiting Chinese. But for those who enjoy their clubbing a bit less formulaic, there are some impressively wild parties to be had in the Causeway Bay and Tsim Sha Tsui. Travellers will find the clubs in these areas somewhat smaller than the huge venues in Hong Kong's heart, but these are not only frequented by locals rather than out-of-towners they are invariably cheaper.
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