Features

49.jpg (2615 bytes) Gu Yun had a "mystical feeling" the day she stumbled across a disused air-raid shelter in a dingy corner of Chaoyang district. She knew she could do something interesting with this relic of Chairman Mao's enthusiasm for going underground in the fight against imperialism.

Perhaps the Helmsman would have considered drinking Carlsberg a sign of defeat, but the solidly middle class customers of Pretty Bird have embraced Gu's reinvention. The labyrinthine bar has just celebrated its third birthday and shows no sign of losing its appeal.

It's the design more than the location that makes Pretty Bird stand out. It grabs your attention straightaway with a rope-bridge effect along the tunnel leading to the bar proper (which can be rather disturbing on the way out).

Beyond that a winding passage connects a series of rooms and open areas, where all around are intriguing textures and incongruous juxtapositions: Marlboro Man and the Potala Palace; "minority" art and vinyl records by Czech classical musicians.

The best point about the bar's style is not that it's cool, but that it's fun. Two swinging rooms stand out -- instead of normal chairs, seats are hung by rope from the ceiling. The seats are quite narrow, so I'm afraid fat people can't play.

Food is also on offer. Although there's not a great deal of choice (and no English menu -- you have to guess from the drawings), it's all well above the usual Beijing bar standards. The home-made pizzas are especially good. They do all-veggie pizzas too if you ask nicely.

Pretty Bird is tough to find. Go to the Jiangsu Hotel on the west side of Andingmen Waidajie, a few hundred meters south of Anzhen Qiao, then walk down to the end of the road along the side of the hotel, where high on a telegraph pole you should see a small illuminated sign for the bar.

From this point, it is just a few steps to your left within the courtyard of a residential block.

Tel: 6427-7025
Open 5 p.m. to 2:30 a.m.