Suzhou is a beautiful city located in Jiangsu province of China. The city seems to have a rich and vibrant nightlife scene for both the expats and locals. There are so many awesome places spread across this gigantic cultural gem. If you prefer to visit a China bar or club, then you should know that there are quite a few taxi dance halls in Suzhou. One such hall is Suzhou’s Meimei Dance Hall (美美大舞厅, Měiměi dà wǔtīng). The hall is also known as the Meimei Ballroom in the expat community. I stopped by this all on a Friday evening (mid-March, 2018) and spent nearly an hour in the hall. This post is aimed at describing some of the personal observations about the Suzhou nightlife revolving in and around this dance hall.
Related Suzhou articles – you may also want to check out all my other blog-posts about living in Suzhou, Jiangsu, China.
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What is meaning of 美美大舞厅 (Měiměi dà wǔtīng)?
I have been working on a Chinese Learning Course – Learn Chinese Fast for quite some time. And now I’d briefly explain you the meaning of the Hall’s name.
The official name of the Hall is 美美大舞厅 (Měiměi dà wǔtīng), meaning Meimei Ballroom.
Well, 美 (Měi) means beautiful. 美美 is actually a girl’s name. If you want to name a girl in China as petty/beautiful, you won’t call her 美, you’d rather name her as 美美 (meaning very beautiful). 舞 (wǔ) means dance, 厅 (tīng) means a hall. 舞厅 means a “dance hall”. Since 大 (dà) means big in Mandarin Chinese, 大舞厅 (dà wǔtīng) means a “big dance hall” or a “Ballroom”. Overall, 美美大舞厅 means a “Beautiful Big Dance Hall”.
In fact, there a good number of dance Halls in China, and many of them are associated with the term “舞厅”. For example, a Chongqing (重庆, Chóngqìng) dance hall may be named as 重庆舞厅 (Chóngqìng wǔtīng). I hope you get the intuitive meaning.
Location of Suzhou MeiMei Dance Hall?
The dance hall is located on the Chang Xu Road (阊胥路, chāng xū lù). Let me give you the precise locations/directions to Suzhou’s MeiMei Dance Hall:
- Google Maps: paste “31.3082321, 120.605265” GPS coordinates in the Google Maps (after removing the quotation marks). You can also try pasting “美美大舞厅” in the Google Maps.
- Baidu: MeiMei Dance Hall – please open on desktop/laptop (how to use Baidu Map).
- Nearest Subway/MRT: Guangji Nan Lu Station (广济南路, Guǎng jǐ nán lù). This station is the intersection of Suzhou’s Green and Red subway lines. Take exit 2 and keep walking along the Ganjiang West Road (Gànjiàng xī lù road, 干将西路). Take left turn at the roundabout and walk on the Changshu Road. The hall would be on the right-hand side as you walk on Changshu Road.
- Nearest bus stops – get down at the Xiaorihuiqiao North Bus Stop (小日晖桥北站, Xiǎo rì huī qiáo běi zhàn) – the Dance Hall is just behind the bus stop.
The dance floor is located on the 3rd floor, and you’ll need to use the staircases.
How to describe MeiMei Dance Hall?
Well, it’s a typical taxi dance hall, where one can go and dance with the taxi dancers. It’s in no way like a western club or bar. You’d probably either sit on the chairs or shake your things on the dance floor. 🙂 As such, there are no food or drinks available inside the Meimei Ballroom. So obviously you can’t buy drinks inside the hall. In fact, I didn’t see anyone drinking over here during my sojourn.
However, there are quite a few convenience stores located just outside the building along the Changshu Road.
Any entry fee to MeiMei Dance Hall?
The entry fee is RMB 10. You need to pay it before entering the hall. The entry ticket is sold on the second floor. I paid in cash. No credit cards seem to be accepted.
A gatekeeper checked my ticket and didn’t return it to me. So, I’m not sure if they would allow free reentry in case you come out of the building to buy food/drinks.
Opening hours of Suzhou MeiMei Dance Hall
I reached the Hall by ~8pm and left by 9pm. Although I’m not very sure about the opening hours, it seems that the Hall could be open from 10am to 10pm. Also, the Hall might be open almost every day. However, around the Chinese New Year may be its not very crowded. Even I’m wondering if there is a way to find the official information.
Do you need a Chinese ID card to enter MeiMei Dance Hall?
Well, I just bought the tickets and entered the Dance Hall. No questions were asked. Nobody asked me to show any ID card while buying the ticket or entering the hall. I spend nearly 1 hr. inside the hall and just a few minutes before I was about to leave the Hall, a security guard came out of nowhere and said something to me in Mandarin. I didn’t know what he was trying to say. I just gave him my Chinese work permit card and he looked at it for a few seconds. I heard him saying a few times Wàiguó rén (外国人- foreigner). Soon, he disappeared after returning me the card. We didn’t see each other again.
Basically, I think it’s better to bring your Chinese ID card if you have one. If you don’t have, maybe bring your passport and show him the immigration stamp. The embarkation card might be okay as well. But make sure you have something to show him as a proof of identity, preferably with a few imprinted Chinese characters. 🙂 In general, the locals usually don’t want to mess up with an English-speaking person. So just stay calm and confident if you are approached by a security personnel.
Hall size
The Hall size is quite big. The dance floor may be nearly 25*30m2. There are sitting chairs surrounding the dance floor where you can sit down and relax or talk to the dancers. Anything goes here.
How is security scenario in the hall?
There were quite a few security guards inside the Meimei Dance Hall. They were peacefully sitting, smiling and looked relaxed all the time. I’m sure the guards know everything that goes around the dance floor. As such, there were no policemen, only the security guards. Although, I was visiting alone and my Mandarin skills might be somewhere near 3/10, I didn’t face any problem. Moreover, I didn’t see any foreigner in the Hall.
How is the ambiance in the MeiMei Dance Hall?
The ambiance was overall not too bad. The Hall’s air is quite smoky and slightly suffocating. Spending long hours in the Hall on a regular basis may not be good for your lungs. I’d humbly say that smoking is really a serious issue in China.
How about the toilets?
Well, there is a lady’s toilet just before you enter the gate of the Hall. The Men’s toilet is located inside the Hall, just on the left side of the entry gate. Anyways, the male toilet looked really messed up, its simply too dirty. You’d better get out of the toilet as soon as possible.
What kind of songs do they play in MeiMei Dance Hall, Suzhou?
Well, during my 1-hour long Hall dwelling, it was all Chinese songs. I didn’t hear any English music. Some songs had fast track music, some relatively slow. No DJ kind of stuffs.
The light-dark cycle
The trend seems to be to play one song when the bright lights are switched on. Then the next song is played while the dark lights (e.g. blueish) are switched on. The cycle gets repeated again and again. Here is a video on China’s YouKu– check out the lighting in the hall:
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As such, during the light cycle only a few couples would be on the dance floor. The moment dance floor gets darker, most of the people would head to the floor in pairs. The visibility is really-really low.
How much is fee for each dance?
You need to pay RMB 20 to your partner for each dance – whether you dance with them in dark or light. The fee is paid after the dance is over (i.e. after the change of the lighting). Moreover, RMB 20 is the basic pay, you may pay more based on what and how far you got. 🙂
How do you get the cash change?
Well, there is a cash exchange counter in the Meimei Dance Hall, where you can hand over a higher domination currency note (RMB 50/100), and the guy will give you the change within a few seconds. It’s perfectly fine if you don’t bring any change. Moreover, I think you can also pay by WeChat/Alipay to get the change. Nevertheless, I’d say – bring some local currency notes.
How much crowd in Suzhou dance hall?
There were a good number of people – may be nearly 100 souls in the Hall on that particular Friday evening. The male-female sex ratio could have been fairly 50-50. The crowd’s age might have varied from early 20s to mid-50s.
The deaf girls
There were at least two dance girls in the Hall who claimed to be deaf, and often communicated using gestures (sign language). I also learnt that they need to come to the Hall to dance every day.
How about the oldest profession in the world?
I suppose that some of my curious the readers would be interested to know about this aspect as well. So, let me tell you briefly.
Yes, it seems to exist inside the hall. The services could be offered near the chairs placed around the dance floor – usually when the lights are dark/blue. You may get all types of full services for less than RMB 100 – depending on how much you could bargain. And the bargaining may depend on your Mandarin skills.
All the adventurous deeds mostly happen during the dark cycle – those eventful 4-5 minute of a song. 🙂
The young dancers were more of silent and looked like waiting for someone to approach them.
However, some of the experienced veterans were tremendously pushy. The veterans would come to approach you for the needful.
I had a tough time dealing with these veterans, and I repeated Bu Yao (不要, Bú yào, don’t want) for at least 10 times to a couple of the veterans. In fact, some of them are extremely pushy and wanna get money out of your pockets ASAP.
Is it compulsory to dance or pay?
No, not at all. You can spend all the time just by sitting idle in the Hall. Some veterans would of course try to maul you, but you have an option to humbly say no to them.
My visit was plain and simple; I don’t have any plan to visit this hall in the future.
But if you have some thought on similar issues, do let me know in the comments.
Suzhou city, China clubs and bars
If you are looking for a western style China bar or club in Suzhou, then you need to visit the area around Li Gong Di (李公堤, Lǐ gōng dī) or Shi Quan Street (十全街, Shí quán jiē). Shi Quan Street is more of old and traditional in nature and may have slightly cheaper drinking options. Li Gong Di is new, modern and expensive. If you want to find pickup bars in Suzhou, either would be okay. Shantang Street (山塘街, Shāntáng Jiē) is another awesome place to eat local delicious food in Suzhou. I’ll write more about them in some other posts.
That’s all in this post
If you have any question about the Suzhou, China Holidays or wish to share more about China bar, club, nightlife, or anything about China travel attractions, etc. feel free to post in our forum so that others could also contribute and learn. For regular updates like us on Facebook, or follow on Twitter!
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Wish you a memorable time with Suzhou, China holidays.
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Last updated: Tuesday, October 8, 2019