At Asia's 50 Best Bars awards ceremony in Macao this summer, the spotlight finally fell on an establishment tucked behind a traditional Cantonese storefront in Guangzhou's historic Dongshankou neighborhood.
Hope & Sesame was named Asia's No 1 bar — the first time a venue on the Chinese mainland has taken top spot.
"When they announced the No 3 bar, that feeling was already like being No 1 … So when they actually call you, it's very crazy," said Bastien Ciocca, one of the bar's co-founders.
More significantly, it was not an isolated victory.
The 2026 list featured seven bars from the Chinese mainland, with Hope & Sesame, MO Bar Shenzhen and Obsidian Bar, all in Guangdong province, ranked in the top 10. Other mainland entries that made the list were Pony Up in Shanghai, CMYK in Changsha, Hunan province, Ralph's Bar in Chengdu, Sichuan province, and Tiao in Beijing.
The results represent the culmination of the local industry's development, with several mainland bars repeatedly recognized in recent years.
Together, they point to broader growth. China's bar scene is expanding beyond Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangdong's Guangzhou and Shenzhen into regional cities, developing distinctive local expressions and boosting exchanges with the global industry.
Beyond major cities
Liu Ming, co-founder of CMYK, has worked in the bar industry for 27 years and divides the development of the cocktail scene into three stages.
"The domestic cocktail industry has changed dramatically since I returned to China in 2012," he said.
From 2012 to 2016, cocktail culture was concentrated mainly in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chengdu, with foreign bartenders arriving to open venues and Chinese bartenders returning from overseas.
Between 2016 and the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, cocktail bars spread to more cities, while Beijing and Shanghai developed increasingly international scenes. Liu said at that time there were at least 40 cocktail bars within walking distance of one another around Beijing's Sanlitun area, with more than 20 offering high-quality drinks.
The post-pandemic period brought a third stage: rapid growth across the country, accompanied by a high closure rate of establishments.
"The barriers to entry are too low," Liu said. "Many people lack experience in service, menu design and cost accounting, and they simply cannot make the numbers work."
The geographical spread of the industry, however, is clearly changing.
"When Asia's 50 Best Bars launched back in 2016, we noticed that all of the ranked bars were in what you'd consider 'cocktail capital cities'. Now, we're seeing real diversification," said Emma Sleight, head of content for Asia's 50 Best Bars.
CMYK's continued presence on the list demonstrates that regional cities can build sustainable cocktail ecosystems, while destinations such as Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, are also beginning to attract international attention.
The rankings also entice visitors to discover cities through their bar scenes. For regional venues, however, survival depends heavily on local tourism and foot traffic.
Liu calculates that a 30-seat bar aiming to fill its seats every day needs roughly 210 to 300 customers a week. Relying entirely on regulars for survival is difficult.
"For a large bar, you need regular customers to provide a safety net and tourists to add value," he said.
He also believes bars need to form clusters. "The bar industry is an ecosystem. One bar dominating on its own simply doesn't work."
Ralph's Bar in Chengdu represents another business model, bringing together the local expertise of Hope& Sesame and the resources and identity of luxury brand Ralph Lauren.
"We see the fusion not as a simple mix of East and West, but as a dialogue between Ralph Lauren's American sensibility and the cultural energy of Chengdu," a Ralph Lauren spokesperson told China Daily.
The spokesperson added: "The city's rich food and tea culture also sharpens our focus on texture, aroma and balance. Chengdu guests have exceptionally refined palates, so every ingredient must have a purpose."
