For years, Beijing's young and trendy drinkers clustered around one dirty, narrow street. In the centre of the bar and embassy district of Sanlitun, the pedestrian passage dubbed 'South Street' was lined with tiny bars competing to offer tequila slammers for 10 yuan.
Every weekend, crowds of young - mainly foreign - bar-goers thronged outside the pubs and clubs, clutching gin and tonics until daybreak. Then they would slope off to one of the nearby hotels to guzzle down Bloody Marys and English fry-up breakfasts.
It was the place to see and be seen. It didn't matter if you forgot their names: the same people would be there again the following week.
Then whispers began to flit here and there that the street's days were numbered. When the wrecking balls actually started wrecking, South Street regulars were aghast that the rumours were coming true.
Today, only a single bar - Nashville - remains, at the top end of the street. The rest have been bulldozed into rubble, the latest casualties of the city's relentless development drive.
'Where do we go now?' became the new, frantic, whisper.
But the anxiety was short-lived. With the evenings lengthening and summer looming again, party-goers looking for venues find they are completely spoiled for choice. For once, that wrecking ball actually seems to have done a lot more good than harm.
