It’s 5.45pm on a blistering July Saturday – and the streets behind Shanghai’s famous Bund are alive with an A-list society buzz. Guangdong Road, which cuts back at a 90-degree angle from the riverfront Bund, is forcibly closed. Military guards patrol each side of the street as throngs of limos pulled up to the red carpet.

Unfurling themselves from the deluxe comfort of their leather-lined, air-conditioned carriages are a small coterie of invite-only guests – some of whom were flown down especially from Beijing and hosted at the nearby Westin hotel. Great fuss is made over each one. Ushers wearing tailored black shirts wave invitees towards the door. Usherettes indicate the uneven stepped red carpet to the ladies wearing pointedly high heels. Welcome to the grand opening of Lan Club Shanghai.

As the select few squint into the late afternoon sun, cheering crowds point, giggle and snap movie stars, film directors, pop stars, fashion designers, artists and the seriously well connected – rumoured to include the son of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao. Then China’s fresh-faced new elite turns on its Prada heels and disappears inside the four-floor, 5,000 sq m dining emporium and nightclub for a night of unbridled New China celebration. On the menu is dinner by renowned Belgian chef Yves Mattagne, whose caviar starter alone is valued at around USD300 per head.

This is, according to the embossed gold lettering on the glossy black invite, an introduction to “Global quality: Chinese Style.” The launch of Lan Club Shanghai is the city’s biggest society night of 2008 – but it represents more than that. Beyond the Porsche-owning banter, small talk of impending holidays in Ibiza or Miami and widespread enjoyment of baton-sized Havana cigars, the Lan VIP lounge offers a glimpse into a newly globalised Chinese elite. It has plenty of money, is socially well connected, enjoys the freedom to travel and really loves to party – just like its wealthy peers around the world.

As midnight draws near and the multi-course dinner is completed, guests mingle throughout the four floors of chic bars and restaurants. New York-based fashion designer Han Feng, the costumier for Anthony Minghella’s stage version of Madame Butterfly, glides up the stairs; Shanghai couturier Lu Kun, whose boutique numbers Paris Hilton among its clientele, cools himself with a Chinese fan. A senior European diplomat breezes past and the owner of Shanghai’s Museum of Contemporary Art waves to friends. This is a convivial gathering of some of China’s best-connected people.

On the other side of the VIP Lounge – a library-themed bar featuring floor-to-ceiling bookshelves lined with spray-painted faux wooden books – Lan Club’s formidable owner, Zhang Lan, is smiling and raising a glass with some young starlets.

I first encountered Zhang Lan three years ago. She was standing on a small platform in the middle of a beautifully manicured lawn. In a bullish voice that echoed across the garden she announced the opening of her new concept: South Beauty 881. The fine-dining Chinese restaurant and club, located in a heritage mansion, serves spicy Sichuan cuisine to a high-brow clientele, with each private dining room named and themed after a Chinese poem.

Yet it was her words, and manner of delivery, that drew people in. “We must have more Chinese brands,” Zhang exhorted to a receptive crowd. “We need to be proud of our brands, like other countries are of theirs.” She then reeled off a roll-call of exotic labels that Chinese companies should emulate.

Founded in Beijing in 2000, Zhang’s company South Beauty is now one of China’s most recognised brands, with more than 40 restaurants located on high streets nationwide. It plans to launch an initial public offering in 2009. But, though the chain could do little wrong in domestic dining, Zhang saw an opportunity to globalise the brand. While South Beauty caters successfully to urban China’s white-collar clientele, it didn’t sate the discerning whims of the nouveau riche, or “the CEO class” as Zhang has termed it.

Having launched the more upscale 881 dining and lounge club brand, Zhang took another step up the branding ladder. In late 2006, she opened Lan, an eponymous 6,000 sq m restaurant, lounge and club concept designed by Philippe Starck – to whom Zhang says she paid USD1.3m for three days of conceptual work. It was, apparently, money well spent: in a 2007 magazine interview, Zhang said Lan’s “daily profits are around USD100,000.” She expects to recoup the total investment for the Beijing club in two years.

And so to Shanghai, where the new club occupies a renovated heritage mansion near The Bund. The building boasts one of Shanghai’s most ornate neo-classical stone facades – a legacy of the post 1842 Opium War and the foreign-dominated concession-era construction boom that followed. Step inside the venue – described by the owners as “the embodiment of tasteful artistic dining” – though, and the extravagant interiors are unmistakably New China.

The styling, by French designers Gilles & Boissier, is influenced by history but dressed for the future – much like Shanghai itself. “A first impression of the designs [of Beijing and Shanghai] is totally different, but they are actually similar concepts,” says Wang Xiaofei, Executive Director of Lan Club, and son of Zhang Lan. “They are both based on traditional ancient stories about different cultures: Louis IV in Beijing and Ming Qing in Shanghai – but the interpretation of both feels very modern and international.”

The ground floor boasts a Chinese lounge dressed in vibrant red, with black deco piping, oversized mirrors and black birdcages hanging on the walls. Adjacent is the Library Bar and opposite is the dance floor and club area; cut through two levels of the building, it is dressed in red, white and black with mosaic mirrors, Chinese lattices and long marble tables.

The broad staircase between each floor curves around white walls with stenciled tree branches climbing the stairwell. At the top on each floor is a differently coloured giant lantern – white, red and ocean blue. The design and layout of the second floor aims to "give the space a ‘supperclub atmosphere instead of a traditional dining experience appealing to all the senses,” Zhang says. There is also a members-only cigar and cognac bar.

The third floor is for private dining, and includes a white marble seafood room with a large, seemingly flat jellyfish tank. The fourth floor highlight is an open-air winter garden dining area with a glass roof, deck terrace and a ‘green wall’ covered in fresh foliage.

As the clock ticks past 2am, Lan Club Shanghai’s first night is almost over. The dark, empty streets behind the Bund are no longer patrolled by military guards or cheering crowds. The red carpet is gone. But Lan’s global journey is only just beginning. Having conquered Beijing and Shanghai, the next venture will be overseas. So get ready Dubai and New York – China’s 'most extravagant brand' is headed your way.

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(c) Gary Bowerman - worldwide rights reserved
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This article was written for and published in
Urbanatomy (Shanghai)