Illustration: Lu Ting/GT

It's 10 pm on a Friday night in Shanghai, do you know where your children are? Every weekend, the city's popular bars and clubs become jam-packed around the same time that parents turn in for the night. Among the hundred of patrons queuing up in front of elite mega-clubs, no one thinks to look twice at the giggling 13-year-old girls in ultra-miniskirts slipping through the front doors for a night of decadence.



The lawful drinking age in China is set at 18, however this has gone largely unenforced. While underage drinking is not unique to Shanghai (Europe proudly sets that bar, pun intended, famously low), China's cheap liquor (quality and price) and an utter lack of regulation make it all too easy for foreign and Chinese teens to indulge in their booziest fantasies.



As a recent graduate of Shanghai American School, I've witnessed and experienced this problem firsthand. Drinking culture was not as rampant at our school as other less-academically stellar international schools in the city, but many of our students nonetheless started partying their freshman year.



If one wanted to host a house party while daddy was on a business trip, all they had to do was get their friends to pitch in, then run down to the nearest FamilyMart to stock up on vodka, beer, even baijiu. It didn't matter to us if it was fake; all that mattered was being seen by our classmates holding a bottle.



Chinese convenience store owners rarely bat an eye at teen drinkers. The fact that locals seldom question the actions of foreigners also allows - nay, encourages - expat teens to get away with buying alcohol and going out to bars.



For around 100 yuan ($14.51), teenagers can drink to their heart's content at most local dance venues. Not all international students in Shanghai come from wealthy expat-package families, so for those on a strict allowance, there's always 20 yuan mixed drinks at seedy bars who practically solicit highschoolers with their open-door policy and cheap menu.



With no ID checks in place, the only thing expat teens need to gain access to is money, and there's definitely no shortage of that here in one of Asia's wealthiest cities, where Caucasian businessmen and Chinese tycoons rub shoulders at school-parent meetings. Sadly, while some parents might be aware of their children's nocturnal activities, most remain oblivious.



I've known friends who regularly snuck out of their Hongqiao compounds (and drunkenly stumbled back in at dawn just before their ayi rose to prepare them breakfast). Another popular method, one that yours truly has admittedly albeit regretfully used, is to tell parents that you are "going to a sleepover."



In February, news spread about a 14-year-old girl who was working as a "hostess" at the notorious Club Mook. Imagine her father's horror when he discovered her there, dressed in revealing clothes and sidling up to sleazy tuhao.



While expat teens may feel invincible about how much they can get away with, excessive drinking takes an emotional and physical toll. Many middle-class kids often feel pressured to fit in with the upper-class social scene at their elite schools. Being in an academically challenging school also spurs students to blow off steam, often to the point of blacking out.



Many Chinese teens feel as though they cannot be open or honest with their "helicopter parents," so they live a double life and often are forced to lie about their whereabouts at night. This not only proves dangerous, but the constant lying also adds pressure to their already-stressful lives.



The onus should be placed on Shanghai bar and club owners (many who happen to be foreigners) to enact rules requiring all patrons to show their ID. Too many female teens here get away with drinking simply because they "look 18," thanks to the dangerous combination of heavy makeup, sexy clothes and good genetics.



I understand that Shanghai has a historic reputation to live up to as China's cosmopolitan capital, but as a teen girl myself I can only stand to see so many old men hitting on 13-year-olds, and teens spewing vomit all over the place, before I myself start feeling nauseous.



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