NOT TOO LONG AGO Guangzhou nightlife was, to put it mildly, nothing you would want to expose your children to. Perhaps no area establishment symbolised the zeitgeist better than the deliciously named Dongguan Royal Opera.
Anyone venturing to the Dongguan Royal Opera for a night of high culture realised their mistake as soon as the high-class karaoke bar loomed into view, all lit up like a little bit of Las Vegas misplanted in the Pearl River Delta.
Uniformed security personnel directed drivers to parking spaces with outlandishly choreographed twirls of their lightsticks, like so many Flashdance enthusiasts directing jet fighter traffic onto the flight-deck of an aircraft carrier. Once inside the gaudy palace, patrons were greeted by a bevy of under-age beauties, and invited to select a sitting partner for an innocent (really) few hours of chatting and crooning. Any sinning was subject to further negotiation and conducted off the premises afterwards.
Big spenders were whisked through the main hall to poolside villas, where potential sitting partners were lined up for them to choose from. The mama-sans orchestrating this seedy and degrading spectacle kept up a lively chatter throughout - boasting, for example, that they could provide sitting partners from every province.
Alas for the Dongguan Royal Opera, its fat lady sang two years ago after the friends of a high-ranking Beijing princeling were beaten up by security personnel at the BMW Club, the opera's sister establishment. Both were closed, and their owner thrown in prison pending payment of an exorbitant bribe.
Other dens of iniquity, of course, soon materialised to fill the market gap left by the opera's untimely demise. But at the same time something remarkable was happening. Across Guangzhou good restaurants, excellent museums, at least one decent jazz club and other cultural venues were sprouting up. Two years on, the city finally has nightlife spots you can take the family to.
Consider Ersha island in the city's southeast. Two years ago it had little besides a couple of exclusive gated communities. There were few restaurants of repute, fewer shops and no taxis. If you did not have a car and a driver, you did not live on Ersha - one reason its luxury villas have long been favoured by the city's well-wheeled consul-generals.