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Nightlife in Taipei is thriving. Every time I visit a favourite pub or nightclub, it’s the same story: the place is packed with people, tables are scarce, and even standing room is hard to come by. Likewise at restaurants, beer houses, and night markets — most of them are filled with noise and revelry. All over Taipei, the party rages on.

I find this satisfying, but confusing. Isn’t Taiwan supposed to be in a recession? The newspaper headlines are pretty grim: joblessness is at all-time high, economic growth is at an all-time low, the stock market has tanked, tourism has plummeted, SARS is lurking, and so on, a relentless succession of bad news.

Yet the Taipei-ren spend money and carry on until all hours of the night. They eat, drink, and are merry. You won’t find a table, a chair, or even elbow room, at Roxy 99 anytime after 10pm. This big libidinous bar, known for its excellent music, is always abuzz with boozing, smoking, hustling patrons. The same applies to other Shi-Da University district pubs. At nearby 45 Bar, jovial throngs of red-faced drinkers shout, exchange phone numbers and make plans to go dancing at 2am.

Ditto for the rest of Taipei. Last week I claimed the last available happy-hour barstool at My Other Place, a classy watering hole near the Sherwood Hotel, and the place was filling up fast. On the new pub strip near the Far Eastern Plaza Hotel, upscale nightspots Saints & Sinners and the giant Carnegie’s were chockablock on a Saturday night. Even in the well-worn Combat Zone, the pubs I frequent – Malibu, Manila, Hollywood Baby, Patina, and sometimes, late at night, the Hsaling – are busy, if not full, even on weekdays.

Baffled by the paradox, I called in an expert, Mike Cottingham. This man knows more about alcohol – on a theoretical basis, anyway – than just about anyone. He is the distributor of many famous beer brands in Taiwan, and he’s been a pub owner here since 1978.

The alcohol man provided some sobering news: booze sales are way down, especially in south and central Taiwan. Taipei is less affected, but small pubs with plain décor, simple Chinese restaurants, streetside stalls, and so on, are struggling mightily to sell their liquor. “Some places just try to sell alcohol at bargain prices — a better happy hour, a cheaper beer,” Cottingham says. “It’s just not creative.”

So why are my regular pubs always packed? “There are places that are hip - they sell good food, good music, they have good staff, whatever,” he says. “They have something else to offer. Instead of nickel and diming on the alcohol side, they sell entertainment.”

So that’s the answer: the most popular nightspots offer not just booze, but also entertainment. This is what packs in the people. What exactly is the winning formula? “I wish I knew,” says the expert. “Really, there isn’t one. But without entertainment, you’re going to struggle.”

One venue that seems to have the formula is Carnegie’s, a stylish pub that has seized the imaginations of Chinese and expats alike since it opened in October. A huge place with high ceilings, a mirrored backdrop bristling with bottles, and a professional disc jockey from London, Carnegie’s is something brand-new on the Taipei scene: a dance pub. That may sound like an oxymoron, but it draws the crowds.

The manager, Bob Marshall, showed me a video clip from Carnegie’s opening night. It features two sexy Chinese women dancing on the bar, surrounded by an atmosphere of general intoxication and revelry. Some of these prancing sirens are so sensuous that they have been confused for paid entertainers, says Marshall. In reality, they’re office girls having a good time.

Carnegie’s has a huge arsenal of sweet mixed drinks, no doubt designed to stoke up the ladies. The men apparently stick to beer: Carnegie’s goes through two kegs of Boddington’s on a given night. “We provide the fuel, and you do the driving,” says Marshall.

The mood at Carnegie’s is not entirely spontaneous. Like a pair of maestros, Bob and the DJ rev up the patrons, and the big restaurant-pub slowly changes into a discotheque. The house lights go down, red and blue lights come on and off, the music picks up, the alcohol flows. Bob even has a remote control, and when he presses a button, blasts of vapour pour from above the bar. Good music is key, says Marshall: Carnegie’s plays only pop and rock and roll, and never techno.

Another popular Taipei newcomer is The Tavern, a stone’s throw from the Grand Hyatt Hotel. The Tavern’s entertainment niche is not visible from street level, but on the roof are six satellite dishes, which provide a steady feed of football games to soccer-starved patrons. A foosball table, a dart board, and a pool table round out the décor.

The manager, Michel Blanc, reveals his winning formula: the football attracts expats, and the expats attract Chinese. If a pub is popular – or re nao, hot and noisy - Chinese people will flock there. It’s cycle, says Michel: before long, you attract single girls who want to meet foreigners, and the pub becomes a raging success.

Also, drinkers can throw darts at a target that features hated icons Osama bin Laden, Hugh Grant, and Manchester United, plus Michel himself, who’s worth four points. On a given night, the Tavern will have 50 or more people in it; on weekends, or during a big game, it’ll be packed with 140.

Michel brushes off any mention of Taiwan’s economic downturn. “The recession has been positive for us - when people are worried, they drink,” says the jovial manager, brandishing a glass of wine.

Another hot and noisy newcomer is Sean’s Pub, in the basement of the Westin Hotel. Like all Westin outlets, Sean’s Pub is tastefully furnished, with dark wood paneling, padded booths, a comfortable bar, and a big-screen television that shows varied fare, from those Irish tap-dancers to Formula One racing. But the TV doesn’t matter, because at night the big screen rises to reveal a hard-working Canadian band that boasts a couple of eye-catching blonde singers, lots of audience participation, and some dancing.

Sean’s Pub has also brought the yard-of-beer concept to Taipei – those long glasses that are so hard to drink from. Also, you can throw peanut shells and other refuse on the floor, although many Chinese no doubt find this redundant.

My Other Place is more of an enigma. It has an upscale atmosphere and decent food, but it doesn’t offer any visible entertainment besides people-watching through the picture windows, and sports-watching on TV. It must be the location: My Other Place is a downtown bar in the heart of one of Taipei’s busiest office districts, near the Sherwood Hotel. It attracts a mixed crowd, as business travellers rub shoulders with local salarymen and women.

The Shi-Da University district pubs tend to have a more laid-back atmosphere. The area is far from bohemian – this is Asia after all – but the bars do attract college students, teachers, and foreign expatriates who live in Taipei, many whom are working part-time jobs or learning Chinese.

The Roxy pubs, a chain that opens and closes its various venues every couple of years, are the anchors of Shi-Da nightlife. Currently the group has three sites: Roxy 99, Jr. Café, and the new Roxy Vibe, not to be confused with the old Roxy Vibe. The Roxy owner knows the virtues of a good pub, and by moving around a lot, opening here and closing there, he maintains that sense of newness that the Taiwanese like so much.

Roxy 99 is one of the busiest bars on the island. It draws a slice from every demographic in Taiwan, from twenty- and thirty-something Chinese, to western students, local university students, and foreign professionals. Packed with people from midnight until dawn, or at least until the dance clubs open, Roxy 99’s entertainment niche is tried-and-true: boy meets girl.

Jr. Café is another member of the peripatetic Roxy group. It offers old-fashioned, Western-style entertainment: it is a genuine pub, where patrons sit on barstools, talk, and drink. A few months ago Jr. Café was remodeled, and it is now has an open-air front that borders a pleasant pedestrian mall. If you come early you can get a seat at the front, but if not, everyone still benefits from the breeze that washes out the cigarette smoke.

The spiritual opposite of Shi-Da is the Combat Zone, a neon-lit collection of about 45 bars that lies just behind the Imperial Inter-Continental Hotel. The Zone got its start during the Vietnam war, when American soldiers partied there on their way to Indochina. They left a boozy legacy, which has aged considerably since their departure.

The government has tried to attach an upscale image to the old Combat Zone, and are calling it Taipei’s Soho, but it would take much more than a name change to brighten up the old district. Aside from Malibu, which is about five years old, and the Inter-Continental Hotel, which has been expensively renovated, most of the venues in the Zone are showing their age.

This isn’t necessarily bad, and the Zone pubs do offer pleasant relief from the relentlessly polished atmospheres of the newer places. The happy hours are more generous, the staff are friendly and talkative, and the bars have a sense of place.

But what entertainment do they provide? It varies. Some have karaoke, others have pool tables, darts, or bar games, and some are simple meeting places. Malibu West is modern, has decent food and a pool table, and from street level it looks the most inviting. The Manila has generous happy hours, Filipino food, and twinkling all-season Christmas lights above the bar. It also has hard-working manager Mona and her team of bargirls, who will play bar games or chat with customers for the price of a drink.

Hollywood Baby is a favourite with visitors, perhaps because they advertise, or maybe because the circular bar makes it easy to meet people. Here too, the bargirls will chat and play bar games. Jenga, with the blocks of wood, and Connect Four, where you try to get four chips in a row, are the most popular. The loser usually buys drinks, and the loser is seldom one of the bargirls.

Patina is similar, but darker, and maybe a bit more downmarket. Patina features the lovely manager Joy, who is a fountain of unusual knowledge about Taiwan, and it has a low-profile pool table that is almost always available. This is in contrast to Malibu West and most other places, where pool tables are dominated by annoying, macho types who wear black gloves and project attitude. This is probably a result of the popularity of 9-ball in Taiwan: the country boasts some of the world’s best players.

The Hsaling is another favourite with visitors. A small loft at the top of some narrow stairs, Hsaling packs a lot of life into a small area: a bar, some tables, a long L-shaped couch, two huge fish tanks and a small army of bargirls. But Hsaling is pretty low key. You don’t have to buy drinks for the girls, although it is expected. After all, ladies’ drinks, bar games, and drinking games are the Hsaling’s entertainment niche. People don’t come here to chat with their friends – they come to chat with the staff.

The Manila, Malibu West, Patina, Hollywood Baby, and even Hsaling are fairly hassle-free, but that is not the case with every bar in the Zone. Most dangerous, perhaps, is K-9. This pub is easily spotted: it has a bevy of beautiful twenty-something sirens in skintight clothing, who stand in the doorway and lure in customers. A friend of mine once went in, and came out US$600 poorer. The technique is simple: the lovely girls gather about, the patron buys them drinks, they gather closer, he buys more.

But before long, the pigeon, er, customer has lost track of his drinks, and boom! the bill arrives, a kind of high-priced tax on foolishness. But don’t feel too sorry for my friend, who is a high-ranking officer in an international securities firm — he has done this twice. The Chinese have a name for this feeling of being surrounded by seduction: mi huen zhen, to lose oneself in the company of beautiful women. I guess that’s what happened to my friend.

Aside from pubs and nightclubs, Taipei has some other night-time diversions. It still has its neighbourhood night markets, which are fascinating to wander around in, and boast excellent street food. The biggest and most famous is Shihlin, which is now easy to reach on the new mass transit.

Taipei has its beer houses as well, with their outlandish decorations and salty, spicy seafood. Indian is the most famous: it’s the place with all the dinosaurs. Jailhouse, in the lively Shihmenting district, is also worth checking out. Jailhouse is decorated like a prison, and the waiters dress like inmates. Visitors can put on some manacles and have their photos taken in a mock jail cell. And of course Taipei also has excellent Chinese restaurants, with authentic cuisine from various regions of China.

As for the economy, it may get worse, or it may get better. In the meantime, the prevailing zeitgeist is to eat, drink and be merry. Downturn be damned — let’s party. No pub ever opened at a worse time than Carnegie’s, which launched in mid-October. But never mind, says manager Marshall. “If you can make it in a recession, you can make it anytime.”

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