Barhopping through Shanghai's hard-to-find speakeasies

"Nothing is wrong if you see nothing wrong in it" - Dr Valentin Narcisse, a character in HBO television drama Boardwalk Empire.

Speakeasy-style bars have been popular in New York for years - although they are by no means as popular now as they were in the 1920s, when Prohibition made all establishments serving alcohol illegal but there were, nevertheless, hundreds of illicit bars in the Big Apple. Now the trend has taken off in Shanghai, with the city embracing the glamour and the thrill of false storefronts and secret passwords.

Senator Saloon was one of the first on the scene, opening in the former French Concession area a year ago, and it is still the most authentic (well, as authentic as something can be when it is 11,000 kilometres and nine decades away from the real thing). There is no sign on the door - just a number, 39 - and in the evening, when the lights are low, it is possible to walk past without noticing it.

"Finding it is part of the fun. Advertising it would defeat the purpose of what you're doing," says bar manager David Schroeder. "The idea of a speakeasy is a place not everyone knows about, where you can hide away, have some drinks and speak freely."

America's short-lived ban on alcohol led to the establishment of illegal bars (about which, or in which, you'd "speak easy", to avoid drawing attention to them) across the country and the popularisation of cocktails, heavily sweetened and flavoured to mask the taste of cheap booze. Shanghai is far from dry - and wasn't in the 20s, either - but that hasn't stopped the city from falling for the glamour that has become associated with the American Prohibition era. (See Boardwalk Empire for a more gritty depiction of the times.)

"The trend has pretty much peaked in the States, whereas here it's just started to take off," says Schroeder.