What was once a bar in a Lucky Street basement has reopened – finally – in Sanlitun Village. It’s tempting to paint this as a rags-to-riches story, but then the original Stumble Inn was a fine little bar in itself. The elements that made Shane O’Neill’s bar a fleeting success in 2009 are recast here across a two-story space whose large windows give the place a “bright lights, big city” feel.

Walk into Park Hyatt's China Bar this weekend, and it'll be exactly the same as it was last time. On a good day, you can still look 500m north and see the CCTV Tower and burned-out Mandarin Oriental. On a really good day, you can see all the way along Chang'an Jie and discern the edges of the Forbidden City. The drinks are still good, the chairs no less comfortable, and the singer still has a great voice. But something's changed.

The difference is that China Bar's no longer the tallest bar in Beijing - and that means everything.

Zhongyu Hanging Garden needed a new name and a new look. So why did they take their cue from a prostitution-themed Broadway show?

Ever imagined sipping cocktails in a 600-year-old Chinese temple? Here’s your chance. Contempio Temple Bar was previously available only for private events, but this new annex is open to all and sundry.

Starting off with some - if it's true - morbid news, we wanted to comment on the rumored “murder in Sanlitun.” In early June, several eyewitnesses claimed to have seen a local Chinese woman brutally murdered on Sanlitun bar street. This Global Times’ article reports on the incident, but seems to cast some doubt as to whether the attack truly took place. If it did indeed happen in and around Bar Street, it seems likely no matter what time of day it took place that there would have been enough witnesses around to make sure we'd have heard a lot more gossip on the subject. If the incident took place away from the main bar strips, it may just have been possible to keep chatter to a minimum, but it's all really just speculation so long as the police continue to deny that any such incident took place. However, there does seem to have been an increase in violence - albeit mostly petty - around Sanlitun Houjie in recent months. Maybe it's just the summer heat bringing bigger crowds outside, maybe it's people getting tanked on ten-kuai drinks full of suspect alcohol, but it's a while since we've heard of fights going on with such regularity. Stay cool, people.