What is it that writer types who live in Beijing say about Shanghai when they visit? That it's a shallow, materialistic city, fashion obsessed, and bereft of good music and art? That it's overrun by shallow Euro dickheads? That it has no soul? Maybe so. Maybe so... But the bars are definitely better, so who gives a shit about the rest. Of course, if you stick to the high profile clubs and lounges that enjoy wide exposure in city guides and travel websites, as most visitors do, you're going to miss out on the truly marvellous and idiosyncratic opportunities to get blasted in Shanghai. Here's a list of five of my favourite nice, nice, nice lounges you might not know about. Each is busting with genuineness, heart, unique character, and a lot of soul. If you're looking for a little liquor and a lot of soul, try one of these:

Cafe Madrid

Cafe Madrid is the gigantic, glimmering zircon gem in the crown of this list. Having nothing whatsoever to do with Madrid or Spain (well I guess the Shanghainese owner did live there for a time or something), Cafe Madrid looks like if your grandmother opened up a bar/ lounge and put all her happiest shit in it. A full wall of rococo painting replicas, mounted bison horns, sabres and statues, antique lamps, wicker seating, and an ornate fireplace, Cafe Madrid is Victorian England meeting permeant Chinese Christmas. And every table in the place is a goldfish tank. Large party grotto seating on the first floor and luminous private lounge seating upstairs. They serve probably the vilest, most undrinkable Pink Ladies I've ever had (45rmb), and the standard drinks aren't much better, and you have to love them for it. They've got the best crap on the walls in the city and being there feels like getting drunk in a Flaming Lips video. Beer starts at 30rmb, lots of cocktails on offer, food too.

Izumi

A dead-tech, concrete, Japanese, ball-buster of a bar, Izumi offers the largest selection of Sake and Shochu in Shanghai (I think -- don't quote me on that). Most lounges pride themselves on showing off their selection behind the bar, whereas Izumi offers nothing but an imposing wall of Japanese liquor -- a feature that is somehow quite fitting with the 80's power disco they play on the system. Sharp, austere, and slightly evil-looking, you might not know about Izumi because it's a little bit further down the road from Constellation 2. Constellation is a nice place, but if you want to feel like a Yakuza cocaine lord, keep going down the road and stop by Izumi. Shochu and Sake cocktails are their specialty (they do a real good Samurai Rock for 50rmb), you attain drunkenness instantly with their Kamikaze (50rmb), and you can go bottles on over 80 varieties of Japan's finest for 200rmb and up.

Kiitos

It's already been open for a year, but Kiitos, another rigorous Japanese import, is just catching on lately with the expat crowd. A seriously masculine environment, voices are kept bellow a whisper in Kiittos, because the powerful looking Asian businessmen wearing the suits at the next table over are probably talking about building the next tallest building in the world, strip mining for gold in the Congo, or invading Grenada. Done in black and gold, Kiitos actually looks like a whiskey bottle, and whiskey is among one of the many, many, many genres of alcohol they do a lot of. Drinks menu is a phonebook of every cocktail ever imagined. A lady friend of mine likes getting Frangellico straight on the rocks (apparently it's hard to find in Shanghai), and I like the Shandy, amongst their beer-based cocktails. Prices are fair but expensive (50rmb and up, up, up), as you would expect from a place that feels like the first class lounge of Dragon Airways.

DR Bar

DR Bar is a black box of drunk in the middle of crapnificent Xintiandi. It sells itself as something of a hang out for creative types (DR stands for "Design Resources"), but it's all business in DR Bar, a place that feels like it got its design inspiration from a vinyl record. On the stereo it's all "J'taime, J'taime" French lounge music, and seated by themselves at the bar are all hard-case big drinking types starring into martini glasses. Their specialty is "The Original Earnest Hemmingway Daikiri" which is lime and grapefruit juice, maraschino liquor, and white rum. Sugar added by request only. Good place to go if you're in Xintiandi and you want to get seriously romantic if you've got company or seriously depressed if you don't. It's not cheap (68rmb and up for a drink), but they have to pay that Xintiandi rent, and they make them strong enough anyways.

Ci5

Three out of five places on this list are Japanese bars because no one is fanatical about liquor quality like the Japanese. If its fake shit, they're not having it. Champagne bar Ci5 has been quietly slinging fine champagne-based cocktails for a number of years now, and is well-known to the Japanese drinking community for the superiority of their drink mixes. If you're not a fan of champagne, even something as simple as a gin and tonic from Ci5 will leave you second-guessing all the other G&T's you've been drinking over the years. Spread loft-style over two floors, the service at Ci5 is warm and friendly, and you can see why the place always has at least one or two Japanese white-collar types hunched over the bar on the ground floor. The specialty here is champagne-based cocktails at two prices: 60rmb for sparkling wine-based drinks, 110rmb for champagne-based drinks. Other cocktails and mixes start at 60rmb and meander upwards towards the 100rmb range. They bite you on the ass with a 20rmb service charge, so add 20rmb to whatever you get. Yeah, it's not cheap by any means, but it's such a great environment, the drinks are so well done, and the service is so nice, you'll think they deserve it anyways.