You have no doubt heard the buzz that Yongkang Lu is being shut down, as Xuhui mayor Bao Bingzhang pledges to renovate the area by putting it under new regulations and closing any illegitimate businesses.
But all may not yet be lost!
While some major changes are definitely on the way on the popular bar street, one man who is not all doom and gloom is Todd Pearson of the Camel Hospitality Group (the folks behind YKL spots El Luchador, The Blarney Stone, Sliders and The Hop Project, as well as other venues across town).
"Many of the venues on the street are correctly and fully licensed, and for those venues we are not expecting to see big changes," Pearson told That's. "The other venues on the street that lack the proper licenses, which would be 50-60 percent, will be shut down within a month."
Pearson went on to say he expected all the bars to the west of Xiangyang Lu (or 'the quiet end of Yongkang Lu') to be closed, along with a number of venues on Jiashan Lu. That would also fit in with the government's vow to close alcohol businesses in close proximity to the two schools in the area.
Local government is taking drastic steps to gentrify the city, with a slew of recent closures, from local venues Paulaner and Xixi Bistro to the impending death of Shanghai's food streets, and the West Nanjing fake market being shut down all together.
So while the Yongkang shutdown may have been in the Shanghai rumor mill for a long time - ever since the pouring buckets of water on your head, in fact - the strip may live on, just with a slightly less rambunctious personality.
Or as Mark Twain would say...
READ MORE: The Evolution of Yongkang Lu in Photos
[Image Via Flickr]
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