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Comment by tempsy | Hacker News Reader

After spending the holidays in Hong Kong and Taipei I realized how annoying it is in the US to find anything to do at night or on weekends that doesn't involve going to a bar.

In your typical "big Asian city", you have night markets, restaurants, shopping areas, etc. that all "come alive", so to speak, at night. Young, old, families, etc. are all welcome and expected. Yes, there are bars, of course, but they aren't the sole focus of "nightlife."

In the US the only things open at night seem to be bars that cater to single adults, and anyone who wants to do anything but social drinking in crowded bars have few options.

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Not just the US, most of western Europe has the same problem. Everything closes early. And almost everything is closed on sundays. Want to go to a library? They're barely open after business hours. Maybe on a saturday. Want to eat? Sure, plenty of restaurants. But if you want to eat after 22:00 or 23:00, you'll likely go hungry (though not in southern europe). I live in Belgium's second largest city, and even McDonald's closes at 22:30.

But ah, if you want to get a couple of beers, we've got you covered. You can literally find a place to drink 24/7. Which is nice, I like beer, but I feel like it's silly to only have that option.

It differs a lot per country. As you said southern Europe has a tradition to eat late, so things are open late. UK / Ireland has a tradition (although not really a law anymore) that bars close early.

Cities in at least North Western Europe that have the size of something like Hong Kong are just as 24x7 as Hong Kong, and the same for the major US cities.

The library here for example is open 24x7, cinemas usually until something like 2am etc. But in smaller cities everything is closed much earlier.

Which cities?

I think it is also different as well because of the climate. HK but definitely a city like Bangkok are a lot warmer and the warmth is more 24/7. In south of Spain or PT it is still warm and you can sit on the terras during the day now, but once the sun leaves it gets quite uncomfortably cold. Bangkok does not have that, so night is actually nice and comfortable to walk around it, shop, get streetfood etc.

Another difference is regulations and hygiene. In Cambodia and Thailand, even in villages you can get up 3 am and wake up someone in a stall (of which there are 20+ in a row, so you can pick) (sleeping in a hammock) to cook you food, get you a beer etc; you cannot do that in the EU.

The climate thing makes sense, but I was thinking about London, Paris and Amsterdam and those aren't very warm :-)

Amsterdam is far from 24/7. Besides clubs and some night shops it's dead as a doornail. London has some more, but compared to some Asian cities I cannot say it is lively at night. Probably really the climate! It is freezing outside in the streets at 3-4 am; in Bangkok that's actually nice as maybe you won't boil at that time (I like the humid hotness but people tend to complain about the heat a lot). Although my favorite EU city Berlin is 24/7 and that's cold too, so it is possible. Paris I have not been for a long time, so cannot comment on that one.

Remember when they used to have the big halloween celebration in the SF Castro? They cancelled it when gangsters from the east bay showed up and decided to start shooting each other.[1] This is why we can't have nice things in America. You have to charge an entrance fee or have a doorman checking ID and bouncing gangsters at any public nighttime event where you have a lot of gangsters around unfortunately. For example, whenever I go to clubs in bad parts of town they won't let me in if I am wearing a plain color t-shirt if it doesn't have some sort of writing on it.

[1]https://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/9-people-shot-at-Cas...

No idea why you are being downvoted. I was at that last Halloween event and sad when it got cancelled hence. You can’t have nice things indeed because of the idiotic gun culture. SF lost a part of it’s heritage back then.

Maybe this has to do with the negative side of drug culture of the USA. In Hong Kong and Taipei there is hardly any drug use, and therefore crime is reduced a lot as well.

It's more america's history of intergenerational poverty, trauma and slavery. The drug laws incarcerating people are not helping either.

It takes 7 generations for that kind of stuff to clear out I've heard.

Asia has had tons of poverty and trauma for a lot longer than the USA even existed.

And if its slavery, then why are European cities the same way?

>It's more america's history of intergenerational poverty, trauma and slavery. The drug laws incarcerating people are not helping either.

You have overlooked the third and fourth option: intergenerational poverty and drug laws.

Southeast Asian drug laws are far more draconian than American drug laws and the only reason nobody talks about intergenerational poverty there is because single-generation poverty doesn't exist. Imperialistic powers took turns colonising the region for a century or so and then World War 2 happened. Everyone came from generations of having no wealth and no power.

Noticed this in Tokyo as well. I stayed in Shibuya and never felt scared walking alone at night. SF is a different beast entirely; I've never felt safe there full stop.

Hong Kong consumes very large amounts of Ketamine, MDMA and Cocaine. Admittedly, not so much meth or crack.

From what I can see online, there are only around 8000 reported drug users out of a population of 7 million or 0.1 %. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2018.0045...

The actual number is probably higher, but doesn't compare to the USA with 24 million drug abusers out of a population of 331 million or 7.25%. https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/drugfacts/nationwide-...

Where are you getting your information from that it is a problem in Hong Kong?

Are plain colored T-Shirts some kind of gang symbol? Does it make it harder to ID you? I can't think of any other reason to not allow plain t-shirts in a club.

Gangs tend to have colors associated with them, and members sometimes wear a lot of that color to signal their affiliation.

Partly that's climate - going out shopping when it's cooler during the hot season makes sense - plus it's hard to do a viable year-round outdoor night market somewhere where they publish the wind chill numbers through part of the year.

In the west we do have movie theaters, cafes, but yeah, lots of bars

I don’t think it’s a weather thing...it’s cultural. Same in places warm year round like LA.

Cafes aren’t typically open late at all. And sure movie theaters are open but not really what I’m thinking about when I think of nightlife...

It definitely started as a weather thing--there's a reason they're called "night markets" in Taipei: after the sun sets is the only time its sensible to go outside in the summer. A lot of times the markets are actually closed during the middle of the day.. which is not that dissimilar to the situation in southern Spain, for example.

But you're right that it's mostly cultural, and I wish we in the west had a culture of keeping family activities open outside of normal business hours.

huh? cafes stay open late in LA. even most starbucks are open to 10 or 11pm. a number independent cafes stay open to 11pm or midnight, with some doing things like poetry/art/music/other events in the evenings. there are a bunch of independent theaters, resstaurants, and (outdoor) shopping areas that stay open late. even museums (e.g., the getty) have nightlife events going on.

it’s less “there are things that happen to be open late” vs things that are intentionally meant to be open late.

nightlife is still very much optimized for single adults who like to drink here, and just pointing out in Asia you have districts that only come alive at night and have a lot of things to do that don’t involve drinking at a bar.

Reading at a bar is like a “happy path” in some ways...people want other alternatives than just standing around a loud crowded bar on a weekend.

  The reason is cultural is because the weather forces you to do things at afternoon/night when it has cooled down. 
  I definitely believe that the culture has been influenced by the weather so ultimate it's the weather.

I see this in Northern Chinese cities as well, which has snow for part of the year. I think it’s just how dense the cities are and how safe everything feels.

You can wander the steets alone at 3am and still feel completely safe. It’s an extremely strange feeling when you’ve lived in more dangerous cities.

This could possibly contribute to the difference (alcohol flush reaction): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol_flush_reaction

Doesn’t seem likely. According to your link, only a minority of Asians have this reaction.

Even if it was a larger percentage, with how dense Asian cities are, there would still be millions of people unaffected.

yes, but it is a size able minority, that could keep it from being the ubiquitous night-out option and bring more diversity in evening activities. A critical mass of stuff catering to non capable drinkers gives even people capable of heavy drinking other options.

Ubiquitous\unanimous

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