When I was 18, I went to Shanghai for a three-week program to learn Mandarin. I stayed in the district of 浦西 (Puxi), which was residential and relatively poor compared to the business district on the other side of the river. The buildings were closely packed together, and everything that I needed was within walking distance. It was the densest city that I had ever visited.
I stayed about a five minutes’ walk from my Mandarin school in an apartment with some roommates who were also in the same program. But I rarely saw them; they were probably constantly partying. I don’t know what it’s like now, but at the time, Shanghai was developing at an incredibly fast pace — just like the rest of the city, the nightlife was vibrant and constantly evolving. The best part was that if you were a Westerner, you could get into any nightclub for free. Sometimes, you could even get free drinks as well.