The part restaurant/bar, part museum, part secret garden and part club takes a notion of oriental opulence and runs and runs with it. The place fulfills a fantasy, tucked away off a quiet tree lined street, lush foliage crowding the entranceway that leads to the low villa. An extensive and aged magnolia tree has a mini marquee beneath with an opium bed within; complex water features gurgle and that's before entering the former Russian then Vietnamese then British consulate.

It's tasteful, but not as you know it. The place was built in the 1943 by a finance minister with the Kuomintang.

In its current incarnation it positively reeks of the past with the interior a veritable cornucopia of rare Chinese antiques.

With Shanghai nothing if not resurgent these days the YFEC is now floating the boat of those in the know as well as those who would like to be. What some places try so hard to achieve the YFEC somehow accomplishes with out even a hint of perspiration.

So whose fantasy is it? That would have to be the president of the YFEC the determinedly discerning Wang Xingzheng. Following the success of Wang's restaurant/club combo The Door in Hongqiao he wanted to expand into the city.

In 2001 he found the dilapidated former consulate. "The process of converting the property took three years. It was a real challenge," says Wang, "we are still constantly trying to improve things."

Wang is Shanghainese through and through. His family was in the silk business, though following his extensive and continuing meanderings in both the States and Europe he now holds a US passport. "I like to travel, to broaden my view and to get new ideas."

Setting out to create the YFEC, Wang wanted something a bit different. "I wanted to remind people about old Shanghai, about the fact that this is an old city despite the modernity all around us," he says, quietly, contemplatively through an interpreter. "I want to fuel people's imagination with the surroundings at YFEC, I want people to think about higher things when they're here."

Part of YongFoo's success comes from its ability to somehow blend many and varied components more or less seamlessly. "We have been very careful about what we put together, Shanghai has absorbed many influences down the years, some gel but others don't. I've tried to make sure that the various elements of YongFoo do actually relate."

Wang was a successful fashion designer for 15 years before moving into hospitality. His brand, Zun Hong, was well known across China and designed for men and women.

"By thinking about the past," says Wang, "as I hope people do when they come the YongFoo, I hope this also leads them to think about the future."

He's a very particular kind of chap and it shows not just in his club but also in his choice of attire.

He is splendidly presented which shouldn't come as a surprise, he was in fashion but he is also intense and serious, especially on the topic of his beloved home city.

"I worry about the lack of respect that is being shown to the history of this city," he says pausing, considering. "Shanghai has developed so quickly, too quickly in some respects. There are all sorts of fancy new shiny things in the city but a lot of them have nothing to do with the history of the city, they appear incongruous." He's a practical, pragmatic sort of guy, he is Chinese after all. "Some think that history will hold us back but it doesn't, it enriches society."

YongFoo Elite Club
Address: 200 Yongfu Road
Tel: 021-54662727