Triumphal Arch

Shanghai's bankers have their favorite bars, so does the city's media corps. Now architects, designers and other style aficionados, both local and expatriate, have hit upon their rendezvous of choice at Arch, tel: (86-21) 6466 0807. It's described as a designer's designer bar and caf, and since opening its fashionable doors last August has lured plenty of custom with its understated elegance, sharp cocktails and program of hip events.

Its location, in the chic Normandie Apartments Building, is a sequestered gem. The block is Shanghai's only "flatiron" edifice, erected in 1924 on a thoroughfare through the leafy...