Downtown

Former Amber space given a late night revamp by ex-Shiva team

Nestled a few metres inside a lilong just off Huashan Lu, Downtown is found in the space that used to house notorious after hours spot Amber. Although Amber has moved across the road into the old KTV location and rebranded as Amber+, the years of lost memories, incriminating photos and borderline brain damage are hard to shake for many of Shanghai's party-hardy residents.

First things first though –Downtown (despite being run by the people behind now closed Yongfu Lu after hours spot Shiva) stays open only until 5am, so don't turn up at 6am in your Gucci shades looking like the freshest undead in town expecting to keep the party raging until lunchtime. No, go home, wrap up with a book and stop scaring all the yeye's trying to enjoy their morning constitutional.

The place has been totally redone inside to give the bar its own identity.Inside is a pleasant-enough mixture of grey walls and purple neon lighting. Setting it apart from the industrial-aping crowd though is a mural of a dark metropolis which adorns two of the walls. It's pure Gibsonian cyberpunk – a perfect vision of what people in the late '80s thought the future would look like. Not the coolest idea in the world, but it definitely has its charm.When we were there the music only contributed to this atmosphere:it was the kind of Euro-house that was the soundtrack to '90s sci-fi movie warehouse party wet dreams, playing through a sound system that simply wasn't.

Downtown has been offering a buy-one-get-one-free drinks deal until 1am recently. It's 50RMB for beers and mixers and they're nothing to write home about. But how many bars in this city that are open until 5am have great drinks? It won't be everyone's cup of tea, but those into their Euro-house or vaguely cyberpunk themes might find something they enjoy at this newly opened bar. And then, when you've had enough of Downtown's nightlife delights, it's a short stumble across the road to Amber+ where you can keep partying until the yeye's have their mid-morning nap.