Over the holiday weekend I had a chance to stop by and check out the newly opened Beijing Club in Central. As I mentioned in my previous post, this is a major new addition to the club scene. The primary impact is less on nightspots that cater to international crowds, but much more on venues that attract local partygoers.

As predicted, the crowd that once flocked to the now defunct Hei Hei Club across the street, has returned to the new venue opened by the same owner. The core crowd remains the identical group of heavily local, less international, mid-market revelers. In the short term however, Beijing Club will attract a wider variety of nightlife denizens who want to check out the new space.

The Beijing Club is divided into three floors and also features a large balcony. On my visits the place was too dark and crowded for me to fully evaluate the design, however it does seem like a hodge-podge of various motifs. Visitors familiar with other establishments in M-88 will feel like they’ve arrived in a totally different building.

O.K., so what did the dancefloor look like at 3 am on Thursday night?

PACKED!

Though I don’t think I’ll be going here frequently, I do like large clubs with different rooms or floors. Much to the annoyance of my friends, I’m a wanderer. I rarely stay in one place when I go out, so to be able to explore and jump from location to location within a club is added excitement for me. At Volar, for example, I constantly walk in circles between rooms. In a similar way, visitors to Beijing Club can jump from floor to floor checking out the different sections.

You enter the club on the second floor, which features the main dance floor, and two large bars. The bars are lit by colored crystals.

A staircase at the opposite end to the entrance leads up to the third floor which features a cut out space that allows you to see the dance floor below.

A doorway on the side leads to the large outdoor patio. In a far corner, a winding spiral staircase with an ornate mural along the wall goes up to the fifth floor which features another d.j. booth and a few sub-divided sections of seating.

At the moment, the Achilles heel of the club is the elevator access which results in long lines both entering and exiting. A factor that compounds the traffic situation is that the entrance spills directly into a path between the dance floor and the first bar – a space which will normally be crowded. That said, it was slow going, but still workable, even at the prime hour I was there.

Beijing Club is the final tenant of M-88, the newly renovated building that is also home to Racks MDB, a trendy billiards club; Club Aura, a medium sized club, Sushi Kuu, a highly rated Japanese restaurant; and the Opera Gallery, a contemporary art showroom.

Club Beijing, M-88, 2-8 Wellington Street, Central, Hong Kong (floors 2-5)