Now the bars and restaurants on Dongping Lu might be closing

Hot on the heels of the Yongkang Lu clean-up and just as some of the businesses shuttered as part of Xuhui's crackdown on fun were limping back into action (Hexagon, Shanghailander - welcome back!), comes news that Dongping Lu might be on the end of similar treatment.

Dongping Lu is home to many Shanghai favourites such as Sasha's, Shanghai Brewery and glo London, but all these venues plus more on the west side of the street may be on the way out due to a change of heart of the landlord of much of the area, the PLA.

Having been described as a 'different kettle of fish' to Yongkang Lu by a member of staff who works in the area, the establishments on Dongping Lu are licensed, not in a residential area and rarely get too rowdy. Workers in the area didn't have much of an idea why this was happening - speculative reasons ranged from a good old-fashioned clean-up of the Hengshan Lu area (where many businesses are in buildings owned by the army) to concerns of the bar street's proximity to the nearby consulates.

What we were able to learn is that it's probably all happening in a year's time, as the shut-down apparently depends on the contracts of the businesses, and most bars on the street have licenses which expire at the end of 2017. That said, this is all happening in a city where the only constant is change, so you may want to head on over to Dongping Lu soon before things start disappearing.