AFTER years of enduring the drunken noises of bars in her neighborhood, Ji Yongzhen, 58, said she was relieved to hear that the Xuhui District government will clear out all the watering-holes along Yongkang Road.

But to the hordes of expats who typically congregate in bars along the street, the news pricked their party balloon.

Like the Lensker family from Germany, who have been living in Shanghai for five years.

“It’s very cozy and we can sit outside,” Frank Lensker said of Yongkang Road.

“Places like Xintiandi are too expensive and too touristy,” added his 27-year-old daughter.

“We come here about once or twice a month,” said his wife Claudia. “I understand that the residents don’t like the noise. And some people can be annoying when they get drunk, which happens every where in the world.”

Shanghai is home to about 170,000 foreigners. For many of them, bar strips like Yongkang Road and Xintiandi are popular places to meet friends, kick back and find a sense of community in a foreign city.

Last month, Xuhui District Governor Bao Bingzhang announced that the bars must go. The government, he said, never sanctioned bars to open along the street. Despite the lack of licenses, bars proliferated. There are now about 70 bars and restaurants out of about 90 premises along the 550-meter road, displacing what was once a wet market and clothing shops, with older residences above them.

Earlier this month the district government said only 19 bars and restaurants along the road are licensed, while the unlicensed ones will be shut down by the end of October.

On weekends, the sidewalks along the road are covered with tables, and the merrymakers often spill out into the roadway, making it difficult for traffic to get through. Passing cars honk at the bar customers in the road, and frequent quarrels erupt.

For Ji, the transformation of her once quiet neighborhood into a center of sometimes raucous merrymaking has been nerve-wracking.

“We usually go to sleep at about 10:30pm, but the customers out there don’t go home that early,” said Ji, who lives on the second floor of a three-story building, right above a bar. “Sometimes the music is so loud that our wooden floor vibrates. At times, we have had to go downstairs and ask them to turn the music down. Loud drunks wake us up at 2am. The only solution is for the bars to go.”

Yongkang is the latest in a series of popular expat haunts that usually start with a few bars and then quickly proliferate as a strip becomes popular. As soon as municipal authorities close down one bar street, another pops up somewhere else in the downtown area.

In 2013, a measure to close bars at 10pm was introduced, following an incident where angry residents poured hot water from windows at bar merrymakers. Since then, most bars mute their music and remove tables from the sidewalks after 10pm. But instead of all the noise moving indoors, many merrymakers simply stand outside, continue drinking and talking, and even dance in the street. As some bars close, the die-hard move on to those still open to continue partying.

The residents’ anger is not without merit. In an apartment on the third story facing Yongkang, a Shanghai Daily reporter found the noise pretty muted when soundproof windows were closed. But once the windows were opened, a cacophony of noise bellowed from below.

The desire of expats to mix and party with fellow foreigners is understandable.

“There are other bars in Shanghai, like on Hengshan Road, but they are very far from each other,” Frenchman Jean-Claude Patullacci told Shanghai Daily. “Here, it’s like in Europe. You can stand outside and talk with friends and meet people you didn’t know before. It’s very sociable.”

German Lutz Meier said bar culture in the West is probably more accepted because it’s an old tradition.

“People in Europe choose to live downtown and near the bars because they like the atmosphere,” he said. “But here, the bars come after the residents have already moved in years earlier.”

Zhang Danyin, a lecturer in the Department of Environmental Design at the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, agreed with that assessment.

“The development of bar streets is very spontaneous and a bottom-up process,” Zhang said. “There is an absence of planning and design in public spaces. Such spontaneity leads to conflicts with local residents.”

She said urban redevelopment needs to address both the needs of residents and those who want nighttime entertainment.

“The bars taking over certain streets is a kind of ‘privatization’ of public space, which to some extent reflects a lack of public space in communities,” she said.

“Redeveloping a single bar street is not the fundamental solution. We need to pay more attention and combine private development and public development.”

According to Governor Bao, the redevelopment of Yongkang Road is part of a comprehensive project to protect historical areas of the district by measures such as reducing population, curbing rampant commercialization, and adding public areas and green spaces.

Officials said the illegal bars on Yongkang Road will be turned into boutiques, chain stores or apartments.

More than 260 unlicensed shops on eight streets have already been moved in the first six months of this year.

Yongkang and three other roads are scheduled for redevelopment in the second half, according to the district.

Other popular gathering areas

Hengshan Road (Xuhui District)

Hengshan Road is Shanghai’s earliest bar street, which started in the 1990s. The street’s popularity has waned somewhat after police crackdowns in the area. The number of bars has dwindled to about a third from 10 years ago. The local government is aiming to build the area into what it calls a “slow city community.”

Xintiandi (Huangpu District)

This commercial zone near Huaihai Road M. and has always been popular with tourists and local residents. The traditional residential houses of old Shanghai now host a warren of modern bars, restaurants and shops.

Tianzifang/Taikang Road (Xuhui District)

Tianzifang is an old factory area that was renovated into a leisure lane for artists. The area is now lined with bars, cafes, studios and craft shops.

Wuding Road (Jing’an District)

This bar strip that started to emerge in more recent years is concentrated in a section near Yanping and Jiaozhou roads.

Tongren Road (Jing’an District)

In addition to exotic bars and restaurants, this area also features many elegantly designed historic buildings along the street.