Illustration: Chen Xia/GT

Plans for an after-dark adventure in Shanghai can be dull. The most fun to be found is going for drinks at a stuffy overpriced bar along the Bund or watching nouveau riche pull up in their yellow Lamborghinis at a cheesy nightclub.

If you compare it with rivaling Asian megalopolises like Bangkok, Seoul, Tokyo or Hong Kong, the conclusion is obvious: Shanghai gets beaten every time.

During my five years in Shanghai, I have watched the number of nighttime alternatives to drinking and dancing dwindle dramatically. Theaters, cafes and street-eats catering to night moths like myself have all but disappeared. Libraries, art galleries and parks also close their doors by dusk.

As a result, pubs and KTVs have a disproportionate representation when it comes to late-night venues. 6:05 pm? You have a choice between a gastro pub, a brew pub, a wine pub or home.

The shortcomings of Shanghai's underdeveloped nighttime economy are even more evident in comparison with the rest-and-recreation activities available in recognized world capitals.

You know you're living in a top-tier international hub when you have a broad and vibrant variety of options at hand, be it in Moscow listening to a late-night lecture in a park, or in Ho Chi Minh City watching an after-hours street performance or in Seoul enjoying a pre-dawn cup of coffee.

Moreover, it just feels good doing unusual nighttime activities like visiting an after-hours opera or midnight ice skating. The freedom to choose and the abundance of these choices is exactly what creates a big city atmosphere.

So why exactly does Shanghai - China's most cosmopolitan city - lag so far behind? I often hear from my local friends that it is not customary in Chinese culture to stay up late and, thus, Chinese people traditionally have little desire for after-dusk entertainment venues.

It is indeed compelling to attribute the early closing time of literally everything in China to ancient cultural tradition. However, its history proves to be quite reverse; it was China that rocked the night first.

Undoubtedly, you would have had a better chance of spending a fabulous night out on the town in Tang-era Chang'an or Song-era Kaifeng than in any contemporary city of Europe.

Europe's first introduction to an active nightlife happened only at the end of 17th century with the bloom of colonialism and the advent of public street lighting. This "nocturnalization" can be at least partially credited to the Chinese-influenced teahouses, which Europeans recreated back home in their own fashion.

I presume that it is not a lack of demand that has been so detrimental to Shanghai's declining nightlife, but rather a lack of supply. There are many different activities that locals and expats alike would be willing to participate in, if not for general apathy among business investors.

Favorable profit margins, the backbone of any marketplace, require a developed infrastructure and policy support of the municipal government, which they just don't get here.

Recently, however, some positive steps have been made in this direction, with Shanghai Metro announcing at long last the extension of its operating hours on Fridays and Saturdays. In this sense, the closure of Yongkang Road, an expat-created bar street, was an interesting case study.

I agree that bars and clubs can't coexist with residential areas, and in this regard the foreigners who flocked to Yongkang flagrantly violated its noise ordinances.

However, the basis for their eviction (that those bars were not legal in the first place) makes me wonder if Shanghai's nighttime economy is still perceived to be in China's "gray zone" of unwanted yet tolerated development. In other words, accepted and allowed until further notice.

My hopes are that the local municipality can someday come up with a coherent strategy to provide solutions convenient to both aging local residents who prefer a quiet Shanghai and the young adults who crave after-dark entertainment.

As for now, the unwelcoming, dark streets of Shanghai betray the city's faux-image as a vibrant, international megalopolis. If it ever hopes to rival New York, Paris and London, the first step is to give its young professionals something to do when they get off work. "To live and die in Yangpu," my friend's T-shirt says. Well, maybe not.

The opinions expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Global Times.