MO Bar (Mandarin Oriental Wangfujing)

MO Bar is the cocktail bar and late-night lounge of Mandarin Oriental Wangfujing, the hotel that occupies the upper floors of the WF Central complex at 269 Wangfujing Street. Its outdoor terrace, which the hotel's press kit describes as an infinity terrace, looks out over the Forbidden City, so you can drink with the palace roofs in view.

The hotel opened on 18 March 2019 with 73 rooms and suites, and design details came from well-known names. The lobby features a fish lamp by Frank Gehry, a signature fan by the Oscar-winning art director Tim Yip, and the MO Bar staff uniforms were designed by Vivienne Tam. The room is relaxed, and the hotel promotes the bar for carefully curated cocktails and for late-night partying to a DJ soundtrack.

The drinks list is built around signature cocktails, and there is also a bar menu. The hotel lists a separate Yurt Menu, linked to its Nomadic Yurt Soirée, a Mongolian dining experience. If you want dinner first, the hotel's Mandarin Grill is a steakhouse with Forbidden City views and Café Zi serves Cantonese and regional dishes.

According to the hotel, MO Bar opens at 4pm daily and closes at midnight from Sunday to Tuesday and at 1am from Wednesday to Saturday. Ask for a seat on the terrace when you book, weather permitting. Reservations and enquiries can be made on +86 10 8509 8850 or by email at [email protected].

The bar suits couples, small groups celebrating a special occasion and anyone who wants to see the Forbidden City from a different angle. Elsewhere in the hotel, The Library is a quiet space for books and tea, and The Mandarin Cake Shop on the second floor of WF Central sells cakes, pastries and chocolates, useful if you want something sweet before heading up for a drink.

Wangfujing is a convenient place to end a day of sightseeing, as the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square are within walking distance. Donglaishun's main hotpot branch is on the same street in the Beijing APM mall at No. 138, so you can combine a traditional mutton hotpot dinner with a drink here. The Peninsula Beijing and Novotel Beijing Peace are also nearby. For a higher view across modern Beijing instead, Atmosphere on the 80th floor of the China World Summit Wing is a short taxi ride east.