Last Remnants of Sanlitun Bar Street Set to Close

All that remains of Sanlitun's original bar street – a strip located east across the street from Taikooli and Nali Patio – is set to become history in the new year.

The owner of one of the bars on the strip, Swing58, said in an announcement that their bar and a number of others had been asked by the Sanlitun Jiedao to close in January. This was confirmed by a notice from the Sanlitun Sub-District Office posted to a number of venues on the street (see below).

The notice reads that Sanlitun Bar Street venues were appraised by a third-party organization looking into the structural safety and integrity of housing on the street. The appraisal result was a grade D, meaning the structural safety of the venues is not suitable for operation.

Furthermore, many of the bar street venues have not renewed contracts that originally expired nearly a year ago, on Dec 31, 2021. As such, they have been asked to vacate the premises on or before Jan 31, 2023, and pay any unpaid rent and fees prior to this date, or bear all legal consequences.

While most of the bars – such as Nan Hai Nu Hai, Swing 58, Red Moon and the Lan Kwai Fong Bar – were never that popular amongst expats, they were a big hit with many a local, especially out-of-towners who knew of the Sanlitun area by reputation alone.

Of the bars on the street, Japanese bar and restaurant Jazz-Ya is perhaps best known to expats. The venue served everything from sushi to pizza to Western brunches, and was a critical meeting point for expats from the '90s and into the 2000s.

This wouldn’t be just the end of Sanlitun’s last old bars, but the end of some of the oldest bars in Beijing. Many of the bars on the strip have been in business since the ‘90s, with Swing58 and Jazz-Ya having opened way back in 1994 and 1995, respectively.

READ: Ch-Ch-Changes Come to Sanlitun Taikooli Complex

Images: Irene Li, Michael Wester