A foreigner's view on the closure

Michael Werkmeister from Germany has lived in Shanghai for 15 years and is a regular customer of the bars along Yongkang Road.

I just returned to Shanghai from a trip and was surprised to see that Yongkang Road had changed.

We've all heard that the majority of the bars were closed mainly because they didn't obtain business licenses or have a permit to sell alcohol. On the Chinese landlord side there might have been illegal renting out of housing space and using it for commercial activity. I also heard that some expatriates did some illegal things, such as taking drugs in the small alleys of the neighborhood.