Our favorite bars and pubs

Whether you're looking for a dive bar, a glamorous cocktail lounge or just a cheap beer with a student crowd, there's a great night out to be had here in Beijing.

The Chinese have always put the emphasis on eating rather than boozing and traditionally only drink with a meal. This might mean anything from a cola or a couple of beers to a litre of tastebud-annihilating baijiu.

A decade ago, outside of restaurants, you were limited to a drink in one of the few five-star hotels or necking a bottle of beer in the street. But now an increasing number of young white-collar workers with disposable incomes and a Western attitude to drinking and entertainment has meant that local partygoers have become visible on a scene that was previously dominated by older expats and foreign students.

The Sanlitun embassy district became the city's first full-blown drinking hub in the late 1990s. This soon expanded to the area around the Workers' Stadium, which remains the dominant nightlife stomping ground. In summer 2003 fears over SARS pushed Beijing revellers to explore outdoor drinking options and the picturesque lakeside area around Houhai took off as a place to grab an alfresco ale to such an extent that the local government stopped new developments for fear the area might lose its old-world charm. The neigbouring hutong area of Nanluoguxiang soon became an overspill. Chaoyang Park's West Gate has also seen a recent explosion of bars and clubs all within walking distance of each other.

At the turn of the century many of Beijing's best bars were dives with live music, but the rise of DJ culture and the birth of clubs brought an end to these. The last year has seen the rise of the lounge bar with some classy venues springing up around the city, catering for the increasing number of wealthy Chinese and moneyed foreigners. The latter group has also created a market for café-bars and quieter, more bookish environments, the best example of which is the Bookworm. Although there are now great bars in the city it is still hit or miss whether there will be much of a crowd on any given night, especially in winter, when the city goes into hibernation. It is also anyone's guess whether certain bars will survive the Olympic wrecking ball – though in all cases the proprietors are looking at new locations. So find out what's going on – or going under – before venturing out.

Quiet zones

Sometimes Beijing seems dysfunctionally undemocratic in its distribution of pleasures and services. One area has all the temples, another gets all the restaurants. And when it comes to drinking, three areas are still pretty much off the map.

•The Centre Considering the volume of tourists, it comes as a surprise that there is very little to do when it comes to nightlife downtown. No all night raves in the Forbidden City just yet. The hotels along Wangfujing and Chang'an Avenue all have their own bars, but none worth spending a night in. The Legation Quarter just to the south-east of Tiananmen Square is currently being converted into an entertainment centre, with bars, restaurants and clubs all enclosed in this walled-off compound due to open at the end of 2007. With Handel Lee, the man behind Shanghai's Three on the Bund, at the helm, great things are expected.

•The South Hidden in the hutongs, the only drinking options are cheap beers available at the streetside noodle joints or catching up with a fellow traveller around Dazhalan.

•Financial district As the city expands west, it won't be long before bars and restaurants spring up to cater for the new wave of city boys and foreign businessmen. But currently, outside a few hotel lobby bars, there is little to make the trek to the west worthwhile. However, look out for the upcoming bar in the Westin Hotel, which should be on a par with it's sister bars from New York to San Diego.

Wining in china

Wine-makers from all over the world have been rushing to get their latest vintages to the expanding Chinese market. Bear in mind that when you buy wine in China you are paying a 70 per cent tariff levied on all imported wines. A wine that might cost $20 in an American restaurant or £12 in a British one is going to cost three times that by the time you taste it in one of Beijing's finer eating establishments. Domestic winemaking is still in its infancy, but labels such as Grace Vineyards or a higher end Great Wall are definitely worth trying.

Places to party....

•Houhai & the North During the late 1990s, this quaint area in the old city saw a number of little bars – No Name was the first and its homey style started a trend – spring up around the picturesque lakes of Houhai. Although it has grown into something of a neon Disneyland, the backstreet venues around the lake and between the Drum and Bell are popular with visitors and locals alike.

•Chaoyang If you are looking for all-night drinking dens, hedonistic parties or trendy lounge bars, they are all available in Chaoyang. The main nightlife area of the city, this part of town is where the majority of bars have grown up – originally around the embassies, and then near the office and apartment buildings that are home to the majority of foreigners and moneyed Chinese.

•North-west Student boozing follows a tried-and-tested global format: all-you-can-drink nights, comfort food and 10RMB beers abound in this part of town

Tom Pattinson and Dominic Fitzsimmons