Harbin Nightlife

[Flying Pigeon]

Lastly I was just curious about this. Are these KTV prostitute places actually safe?

I think what you really need to be asking yourself is, "Do these KTV prostitute places play hip hop?"

They're just as safe as any other establishment that caters to men who like to have promiscuous sex with exploited women.

Well said!

Don't judge.

I don't think kdavid was being judgmental. Just tellin' it like it is.

Call me a prude, but I think asking about brothels on this forum is inappropriate. There are other sites where you can ask about that kind of stuff.

Edited June 30, 2009 at 09:41 AM by Dean A. Swanson

[zhen_shuai]

糖果 / Box can be fun, owned by Koreans. It's not far from the main gate of HIT. The 'secret bar' through the door in the back is more chill than the two main rooms.

As others have said, though, night clubs aren't really a good place to meet people to practice your Chinese with. Most Chinese people go with a big group of their friends, so unless you're really outgoing and prepared for 9 out of 10 people to completely ignore you...

There are a couple of really cool Korean bars around Harbin. Ask your classmates, I can't remember the names off the top of my head.

Coffee shops are a better bet for conversation, at least with the employees. My favorite when I lived in Harbin was 阳光水谣, also near HIT: http://www.haerpin.com/sj.asp?id=707

There were a couple of others I liked going to, like 后窗 at 黑大 but I think it closed.

[kdavid]

糖果 / Box can be fun

Actually, Box bar has been closed since this incident occurred.

You'll also need to read this post to get the full story.

If you do some other searches, and watch this video you'll see that this kid was only attacked after repeatedly provoking the officers, and trying to smash one of their heads in with a brick.

Sure, there's no excuse for what they did, and they have been tried in court, but after you see how that kid was acting from watching the video linked to above, you can start to understand why the police attacked him.

[box is] owned by Koreans.

Actually, it's not. It's owned by a guy named "Alan", a native of Harbin with a perfect British accent. He's also the guy that opened Fox Bar and is/was part-owner of Sky Bar near 工大.

[zhen_shuai]

whoa. okay. crazy. i remember reading about that after I got back, didn't realize that it happened at box.

so 'fox bar' is the new box then?

[kdavid]

so 'fox bar' is the new box then?

I'm really not sure, I haven't been there. I was under the impression that Fox Bar was supposed to be much smaller (Box was pretty big after they added the back room).

[Weskhan]

Thanks for completely ignoring the point of the thread and going on the offense Swanson. Really helpful. I really enjoy it when people contribute ignorant trash to my threads.

Anyways, thanks to those that helped out. We got about a week left in the program and found that Coco is probably the best club for the people in our group. Most of us really enjoy it and we've been there about 3 times now. Though we never really found an actual "chill" bar to just get some drinks and talk. There just don't seem to be that many near our building at Hei Da. We checked out the Fox Bar, was really fun so thanks for pulling that up.

And yes I heard about the Box closing down because of the kid getting killed. Horrible. Last week we were with some Italians who said someone got slashed and stabbed at Coco not too long ago while they were there. Gotta be careful.

Wish we were here when the Ice Bar is around!

[venture160]

Hi guys - I haven't posted on here for a long time - maybe a year or more.

I lived in Harbin from 2005-2006, and it is good to hear that almost ALL of the places I used to frequent are still there i.e Coco, Babyface, Blues. etc. If there have been any closures or new openings, I would highly recommend that people update the nightlife section on the wikitravel page: http://wikitravel.org/en/Harbin

I spent along time writing 80% of the content on there, and feel bad because I haven't been back since 2006 to the place I called home for 13 months. (I am now living and working in Beijing.)

A side-note: Is blues still THE expat hangout past 10pm on any given night in Harbin? I heard the Box took over for a bit. This new bar that Allen is running (he was running Blues when I was there back in the day as well) I guess could be a contender.

[kdavid]

I don't get out much and there's not much of a "party crowd" at my school anymore, so I don't know what's "in" and what's "out" right now.

I don't hear of many people going to Blues any more, though it's still there. Also, as mentioned above, Box closed down.

Alan, who opened Box, has opened another bar called "Fox Pub", which is, I hear, more of a "pub" than a club. I hear they have good food there. Other than that, not a lot of new stuff around. There was a "Love" bar for a bit, but they gave out so many free vouchers that I hear they're closing.

Recently, a lot of people have been frequenting the beer gardens and taking advantage of the warm weather, but that's all coming to an end now. I think the beer gardens close after the October holiday.

[Ming Taizu]

I can add a few tidbits of relevant info to this thread:

At Fox you aren't going to get any dancing or loud music. Indeed, it's a chill place in comparison to Blues, Babyface, and the other dance clubs. They have darts, good English food, a variety of imported hard liquor, and the staff is really friendly. Lots of ex-pats, some CET/HIT students, and a few English speaking locals who come out for the fun. Fox is close to Earth (on Zhong Dajie near the main gate of HIT) which allows you to hit up both of them in one night. One of the other nice things about Fox is the Arabian restaurant (run by a guy from Cairo) which is pretty much next door.

I never found anything very close to Heida when I was here back in the summer of 2008; our time was spent in the makeshift beer gardens and hoping from the Box to Eluosi and elsewhere. Did I hear right that Eluosi closed as well? Someone said that there was a murder there as well. Crazy shit.

RE: venture160's question: yes, indeed. Free beer, popcorn, and the beats do the trick.

[jack_zhang]

At the moment harbin nightlife is pretty good

you have alot of bars 27, blues, earth and coco.....

i prefer Earth club on xi da zhi jie it was opened by a foreginer named Boyde he is from australia he is really cool and will always have a interesting party he opened another bar called SKY but it was closed down so then he decide to open Earth club, its a place to go if u want to dance have some crazy shots or just relax they also have english speaking staff and so you can have many conversation in english so you dont have to worry about not knowin chinese lol. 27 has alot of koreans and russian its nice to if u want to dance and drink cheap alcohol and wake up with a bad hangover haha.

[alan Box/Fox]

just found this website and saw my name a few times here.

first of all, I am not a Korean. been out with a few Korean girlfriends but no, not a Korean.

nightlife in Harbin is boring at the moment, BUT, I am opening two more venues, one is called Ku-Box, which is located in Harbin Wanda Sofitel, 2nd floor, Lounge Bar w/dance floor, opens on (Wed. Fri. Sat.)s from 18th of this month, and A New Box is coming back in a new location with four areas in one, nightclub, lounge, bar, KTV, all in one, will be ready by April 2010. on dong da zhi jie, really close to Hit University.

welcome

[venture160]

Its honestly no surprise to hear that Harbin hasnt changed much. I wonder how Blues manages to be the only club that stays open that late when all the other clubs have to shut down. Are there still a number of bars around HIT? I used to go to this place called "red rose" which had a great owner. I heard there are some new places near Hei Da since CET has expanded there with another program. I am actually going to visit Harbin for the first time since I left after spending a year there in 2006. I am really excited to see how the city has changed/stayed the same. Is Hamamas still there? Would love to stop by and say Hi to Ronnie if thats the case.

[venture160]

Thanks for your update on nightlife in Harbin. Actually there is a pretty good wiki for living in Harbin at wikitravel.org/en/harbin, would be awesome if you could update it with some of thesee new places. I will be visiting next week, so I will do some exploring as well.

[Eugene]

Surprise to find this forum.

And I used to be CET roomate twice.

Fox bar is the best choice since Sky bar's shut down.

And I like coffee bar more since not many Chinse studets like nightlife.

Probably Alan here can introduce more bars he runs.

Good job, Alan~I like your FOX a lot~:clap

[harbinexpats]

here is the latest update of night life in Harbin...

most of the clubs in Harbin are not good enough for foreigners. they don't offer cheap and friendly environment as foreigners always prefer.some clubs try to attract foreigners though.

1. earth club: boyde(a foreigner who took charge of earth club) sold earth club and there is very few people these days.

3. baby face: expensive club

4. Russian size: it was closed due to a stabbing incident.now opened again and on weekends popular expats hangout.

5.blues: when Russian size was closed it used to be the first choice of foreigners.these days some people moved to Russian size from here.

[Haerbinren]

is the bar on central street in Daoli called USA BUCKS a fun bar?

just saw it here on TV Travel Channel. what time is that bar the busiest?

[C.J.McRoyal]

There's a pub not very far from HIT near the railway called Fox. A lot of foreigners gather there at the weekend. The boss there called Alan who is a Chinese but used to live in London. You can play foosball and darts there and drinks there are quite cheap, they also serve some western food there. If you are searching some where to dance, may be 俄罗斯酒吧 in Daoli district...80% foreigners, and 80% of all the foreigners are Russians and Koreans.....night life in Harbin is quite boring actully but good luck =)

[kajikyuu]

actually the fox club and the box club both consists of more than one specific owner. there are 5 owners(ithink) one of them is my uncle and they are very well chinese not korean. the owners are mark jin xiao feng, alan, yangyang, and other friends of my uncle. next time your in harbin and you go visit the pub ask mark if hes there for a free beer on me^^

[laowang]

Hamamas is still in business. But its former house was knocked down and now move to some 200 meters right ahead of HIT main gate. Somewhere near Anfaqiaotou.

[muoji]

Since this topic hasn't been updated in a while, I was just wondering what expat bars people recommend for meeting other English-speakers. I'm not so interested in dancing/clubbing, but rather a bar where I can meet people. It sounds like Fox Bar might be the best, but would love others' opinions/advice.