After being opened for over a year in the South of Chengdu, “Xiong Mao” (previously but still often known as Panda Club) closed and focused on re-appearing in a new venue. Last night was the opening event and I was there to check out the venue in anticipation of the Panda Electronic Music Festival headlined by DJ Shadow.

On my way to the venue, located in the East of Chengdu, I ran into several people I know who all gushed about how great the new place is. By the time I got there expectations were high but indeed the place looks fantastic. If you’ve been inside the previous Panda Club, the new spot is at least twice as large and is prepared to host thousands for large events like this weekend. This is huge news for Chengdu’s nightlife scene, as it’s been hurting badly since the last Panda club closed down. Rather than move to a new venue that would have surely been mediocre due to Chengdu’s limited offerings, I decided to put the monthly electronic music event Disco Death on hold for a year to anticipate the new Xiong Mao. After seeing the new location, I do not regret that decision.

Before & After: Dramatic Change

Although yesterday was the official opening, I visited the location about three weeks ago when construction was in progress. And by in progress, I mean totally and completely in progress. The floor was dirt, many of the walls were non-existant, and there were homeless-looking people wandering around the lot. Now, it’s shiny and looks tremendous with an abundance of ambient lighting and factory-like details throughout.

Check out these photos from three weeks ago and compare them to photos from last night below.

Dirt Floor Xiong Mao From 3 Weeks Ago

Now that you know what it looked like just a few short weeks ago…

Photos of Panda Club On It’s Opening Night

Panda Festival Ticket Giveaway

I have five tickets to give away and each of them are for all 3 days. To win them, all you have to do is leave a comment below naming one of the headliners from a previous Disco Death event. First 5 win. If you can’t attend (or don’t plan on) attending all three days, please let me know and I will donate those tickets to someone else on the Chengdu Living Forum.

Conclusion

The re-emergence of Xiong Mao brings a lot of hope with it. Hope for Chengdu’s fledgling live music scene and hope for promising events that attract an ever-larger crowd of music lovers. The first Disco Death is on October 28th and I can’t wait to kick things off and break in this new venue.

Hope to see you guys at the festival this weekend. All the information on that is on the forum here: 2011 Xiong Mao Festival with DJ Shadow.