Suzhou Pick Up Bars, Clubs and Expat Nightlife – Jiangsu China Travel & Tourism

Well, I’m sure if you are an expat (Wàiguó rén, 外国人- foreigner) travelling to Suzhou (Jiangsu province of China), you’d, in all likelihood, be interested to discover the vibrant Suzhou nightlife. I’ve been living in Suzhou for almost 10 months and been to loads of Suzhou clubs, bars and now I’m going to share with you some of my experiences. In fact, when I was initially trying to find a reliable information about Suzhou pick up bars, clubs and expat nightlife, it proved to be a bit difficult task. First, Google search is blocked in China. Second, not all information is available on the internet in English language.

Inside the Pulse Night Club, Suzhou, Jiangsu, China.

• MeiMei Dance Hall– Suzhou China Holidays, Bar, clubs.

Update – I’ve just covered comprehensive reviews of the Chinese dating market (WeChat, TanTan, mindsets) in my books available on Amazon, feel free to stop by:

1. Online Dating in China (Paperback Edition),
   • Kindle Edition (same book – Online Dating in China).
2. Dating Chinese Women (Paperback Edition),
   • Kindle Edition (same book – Dating Chinese Women ).

In early August 2018, I was out to uncover hidden jewels in China’s Li Gong Di (located in  Suzhou Industrial Park) and explore Suzhou bar street. In this post, I’m going to tell you about Suzhou pick up bars, clubs and expat nightlife revolving around Li Gong Di (李公堤, Lǐgōngdī).

• Dating in China – Chinese Dating Show and Tips

In fact, I came to Li Gong Di with the sole objective to enter Pravda Night Club. But I entered Pulse Dance Club as well. So, I’d also briefly share with you what exactly happened in these two clubs.

A detailed list of various interesting Suzhou bars and clubs is also provided in this post. All the must visit clubs and bars names are available with detailed address (English, Chinese and pinyin).

Suzhou pick up bars and dance clubs in brief

Well, there are three main areas for pick up bars and dance clubs in Suzhou –

1. Li Gong Di (李公堤, Lǐgōngdī),
   • Pulp Fiction Bar
   • Pravda Night Club
   • Tunnel Bar
   • Jenny’s Bar
2. Shi Quan Street (十全街, Shí quán jiē),
   • Country City USA
   • Boiling Point near
   • Linkup
3. Zhu Hui Road (竹辉路, Zhú huī lù)
   • Phoebe Bar

This post is mainly about the nightlife revolving around Li Gong Di. You can find my other Suzhou related blog-posts elsewhere.

Li Gong Di brief

Well, probably there is no other street in Suzhou like Li Gong Di that combines a unique scenery with history and modern business elements. Li Gong Di is indeed very famous for being a highly scenic zone in Suzhou city (popular for the classical Chinese gardens). The night views of 1.4 km Li Gong Di causeway look superb. This site is located along the Jinji Lake Avenue (between Jinji lake and Dushuhu lake). There is a famous Suzhou bar street in Li Gong Di – Pub St.

How do you get to Li Gong Di? The following buses would stop at Li Gong Di-

Bus numbers – 100, 118, 126, 141, 142, 146, 168, 178, 18, 207, 218, 27, 518, and 52.

You can find more about Suzhou Tourism & Transport. Please use the Baidu Map to conveniently navigate in Suzhou and other Chinese cities.

No ID checks in Suzhou clubs and bars

Unalike in USA/Singapore, there was absolutely no check of ID/Age, etc. You can just enter any club/bar. Although I carried my Chinese work permit card (just in case?) but nobody ever asked me to prove my identity or age. 🙂 No stamp on hands (quite common in Singapore).

No entry fees

There isn’t any entry fee to clubs/bars in Suzhou. Pay as you eat/drink. A seat for a couple could be reserved for RMB 500 or so.

Summer vacation

Well, in August the clubs were not full of their max strength. The dance floor and bars looked rather empty and a bit boring. It seems that August is the summer vacation time in the local universities and most of the undergraduate/master’s students would be back to home.

PhDs don’t have such summer vacation, but I wonder if they’d usually hang out at clubs. That means, most of the clubbers were either tourists or local working class.

the Hangout cultures

Well, if you are out for pickup, you’d keep in mind that the most of the local guys and girls come to the dance clubs for hangouts, not necessarily for getting laid. They’d come in groups and usually keep themselves busy with their group mates. It could be challenging talk to just one of the group members to have some real action. You can, of course, talk to the whole group and probably make friends- and hang out. 🙂

• TanTan & WeChat Dating Review – Online Dating

Drink prices

The prices would vary and depends on what you’d like to order. But usually for RMB 20/25 you’d get a 300ml glass of beer. Basically, the drinks are not at all expensive in Suzhou bars.

Pulse dance club

I reached Li Gong Di by 9.30pm. The roads looked illuminated, but there weren’t too many people. The bars looked rather empty. I decided to go for a walk around Jinji lake as the lake views looked really beautiful.

By 10pm the light on the lake were off and I returned to the bar street to get into a club. I wanted to go Pravda, but couldn’t find the direction despite having marked the location very clearly in the Baidu Map. The outside temperature was hovering around 30’C (August) and I didn’t want to spend more time walking in the Suzhou bar street.

So, I decided to enter a club and soon headed to check out the Pulse Dance Club.

The DJ was quite okay and the lighting effects were at its best. No one seemed to be dancing at this moment.

There were lots of girls in the club, nicely dressed and the vibe inside the club looked warm and welcoming. I’m quite comfortable leading a nice conversation with Chinese girls (I can speak basic Mandarin and often use Google translator as well).

Soon, a gorgeous girl (call her AA) dressed up in red came to welcome me and offered me a seat near the drinks counter (I was solo). After going through the menu, I ordered a drink and had a brief chat with AA. She was little surprised when I spoke Chinese and paid the bill using Alipay. I added AA in my WeChat. After some 5 minutes, she said bye to me and went on to look after other customers.

There were two girls sitting right beside me and I wasted no time before saying hello to them. They responded positively – in fact, one of them (from Shandong) even changed her seat and came to sit close to me (call her BB). She wanted to learn English and I agreed to support her and we had high-five. We also exchanged WeChat. BB didn’t speak any English, but I told her to message me in Mandarin Chinese on WeChat as it has a built-in translator function.

She started shooting me text messages with supersonic speed.

I learnt that she wanted me to give her a tip. I initially didn’t get what she was saying and thought it was some cultural difference. I mean, we had just started chatting and why I’d be expected to give her a tip?

Later, it turned out that BB worked at the Pulse club. Her job was to keep the customers engaged. You drink and buy her drinks- the club makes money by selling twice as much drink. And the girls make money by asking for a tip (and maybe some commission by the club – not sure).

Since I wasn’t offering any immediate tip, BB left soon and we didn’t exchange any message that night.

I was concerned about paying for nothing and wanted to talk to someone who didn’t work at the bar.

Then I saw another girl (call her CC) eating alone in the corner of the bar. I started the conversation with a simple greeting. It turned out that she also worked at the bar.

I soon realized that the chances of anything beyond a “paid” dance looked dim. I did exchange WeChat with CC and left the club soon thereafter.

What happened to AA, BB and CC?

Before I head to the next section, let me briefly share about the three girls I met at Pulse. Well, CC kept messaging me all the time to come to the club again and I’d share more about her invitations.

BB also invited me again to the club, but not too many messages. Her replies were slow and I decided to move on. Not sure if she had a boyfriend.

AA had a boyfriend and we decided to keep in touch as a normal friend.

CC was single and wanted me to meet her at the Pulse club again. But I’m now quite aware about the dating and relationship situations in China (I have seen a few dating scams as well). I invited CC to rather visit me and suggested a barbeque party together. She wanted me to pay her money to come for dinner. She went on to justify that her salary has been just RMB 3000/month and would need to earn more from other sources (none of my business). As such, I didn’t reply her once she asked for money.

Pravda Night Club, Suzhou

From the very beginning, I was trying to locate Pravda. But somehow, I couldn’t find it – so, initially I wandered around the Jinji lake and then learned some new lessons at Pulse Night Club.

I after coming out of Pulse, I finally managed to find Pravda. It was already 11.30pm by the time I entered Pravda.

No bar girl came to ask me anything in Pravda. I just bought a drink and started chilling out. There weren’t many people.

Although the people kept coming, the dance floor still looked dull. Around 12.30am we started moving to the dance floor. But not much dancing. The DJ was quite ok, but nowhere near what I had seen at the Zouk club, Singapore.

There were indeed hot girls in the club, but since it was a weekend, most of the crowd looked tourist. And you know, Asian folks prefer to travel in groups. And it’s rather challenging pick someone up from a group. 🙂

I did talk to a good number of girls and pulled a few WeChat, but whenever I tried to get them to the corner, they looked concerned about what their groupmates would think.

Well, my idea is simple – approach, isolate, escalate. But it doesn’t work as effectively in a typical Asian group setting. 🙂

Anyways, by 2am the dance floor was nearly empty and I decided to get out of there. There were lots of taxis in the bar street and soon I was on my way to home.

Frankly, I’m not a big fan of paying someone money for dancing or s*x. Thankfully, I didn’t see such issues in Pravda.

Btw, at Pravda, there was a guy with his girlfriend and I asked him how did he feel about the club. He said he liked it. He was from Shanghai, visiting the club after 4 years. So, I’m of the mind that there are still people out there who enjoy visiting Pravda.

Names of Suzhou pick up bars, clubs and expat nightlife

Now let me provide you a Suzhou clubs and bar venue listing! Here goes my list-

Pravda Night Club

Well, Pravda is quite similar to a typical “western club”. Saturday’s night is the ladies’ night.

Chinese name-普拉达俱乐部 (Pǔlādá jùlèbù)

Address: Li Gong Di 1912 Bar Street, Suzhou Industrial Park, Xing Zhou Rd. (苏州工业园区普拉达,李公堤1912酒吧街,星洲街).

Baidu: search 普拉达俱乐部 (Pǔlādá jùlèbù).

Opening Hours: Wednesday (Only Special Party), Friday – Saturday: 10:00pm-04:00am.

Phoebe Bar

Chinese name: 菲芘 (Fēi pí)

• Address: 1F, LinkUp, 688 Zhuhui Lu, Suzhou (Address in Chinese 地址: 苏苏州市竹辉路688号领华数码城一楼),
• Baidu: 菲芘2绯闻酒吧 (Fēi pí 2 fēiwén jiǔbā)
• Tel: 15950006092

Cheers

Address: 261 Fenghuang Jie, Suzhou (Address in Chinese 地址: 苏州凤凰街261号)

Baidu: 笼祥记 (凤凰街店)

Tel: 15050481624

Country City USA

• Address: 2F, 621 Shi Quan Jie, Suzhou (Address in Chinese 地址: 苏州 十全街621号)
• Tel: 13862022727

In Pub 88 酒吧

Address: 1F, 818 Ganjiang Donglu, Suzhou (Address in Chinese地址: 苏州干将东路818号1楼)

Tel: 0512 6801 1988

Gaga Club

• Address: 39 Ren Min Rd. (人民南路39号)
• Tel:15250096009

Blue Marlin

This is another western bar in Suzhou. Their website doesn’t seem to be working (Aug, 2018) but the bar is still operating (TripAdvisor has reviews).

Address: No.168 Xinghai Street, Industrial Park, Suzhou, China

Tel: 86 512 6288 9676

Opening hours: 11:00 AM – 2:00 AM, Mon – Sun

Dining options, Indian restaurants

All the Suzhou clubs and bars around Li Gong Di offer dining options. The pool tables are always available in the bars and there’d be someone to keep you busy playing and drinking. Again, you might end up buying twice as many drinks (be cautious about what and how you order drinks/meals).

If you like Indian food, then Li Gong Di would make you feel great. There are at least two restaurants that I visited on the fateful night – Indian at the Cross, and Namaste – they are located just across the road. You should try Chicken Tikka Masala – a famous North Indian dish, you’d love it.

In summary, I’ve had much better results in daylight than what I’d often achieve at clubs. But I wonder if there is a better dance club in Suzhou than Pravda? Maybe not! So, if you are coming here for pickups, you’d better brush up Mandarin, learn WeChat skills, and most importantly- keep your expectations low. 🙂

That’s all in this post about Suzhou pick up bars, clubs and expat nightlife!

If you have any question about Suzhou pick up bars, clubs and nightlife or wish to share more about China bar, or anything about China travel attractions, feel free to post in our forum so that others could also contribute and learn. For regular updates like us on Facebook, or follow on Twitter!

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Wish you a memorable time discovering Suzhou pick up bars, clubs and expat nightlife! Do visit the Suzhou classical gardens as well.

Cheers!

Last updated: Sunday, October 25, 2020