M2 is not your average Chinese club.
For one thing, the music – pop hits with heavy bass beats mixed in – is eminently danceable, even on a Wednesday night.
The bar, hidden at the back of the club, also serves up decent cocktails, priced at RMB70 across the board. A respectable whiskey sour delivers flavor along with the expected buzz, while the Passion Fruit Fizz is tangy and crunchy with seeds.
The Sakura Lover doesn’t live up to its poetic description: ‘a strong vodka like gentle man with radical violent radical sakura wine.’ It does taste like cherry candy, though, while a less-saccharine Piano Songbirds is fruity with a hint of bitters.
Despite the decent sips, drinkers can’t help but remember they’re in a club: the music is so loud that it’s hard to hail bartenders standing ten feet away.
There’s also the air: if you’re the kind of person who can’t stand secondhand smoke, be warned.
When we visit, the first floor is packed from wall to wall with roomy booths, which, unlike seats at the bar, require a RMB800 minimum purchase to book on weekday nights (RMB3,800 for weekends).
During weekly parties, though, chairs and tables are cleared away so that dancing clubbers can crowd whichever guest DJ is laying down the beat.
For those intent on splurging – think RMB20,000 and up – private rooms upstairs allow partiers to sing to karaoke, douse themselves in a la carte champagne and look down on the crowd through layers of soundproof glass.
Most people, however, choose to stay on the ground floor. And while M2 may not be everyone’s shot of tequila, they’re clearly doing something right: as midnight approaches on a weekday night, the tables on the ground floor are almost full.
A few move to the music while most chat or check their phones as attentive, well-groomed waiters weave and bob holding menus and the occasional bottle with sparkler attached.
It lends a mood of celebration, and why not? It may be Wednesday in the rest of China but at M2, the weekend has already started.
Price: RMB70-150
Who’s going: EDM fans, businessmen
Good for: dancing on the weekend, decent drinks
Nearest metro: Chegongmiao (Exit C), 8 minutes
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