South Korean student Jin Ying-shi, 24, takes a swig from his beer, his third of the evening, as he looks around at the crowd of revelers.
Jin is at Club Wax, a subterranean bar on Roosevelt Road, taking advantage of the all-you-can-drink special of NT$350, a price NT$150 cheaper than the Taiwanese patrons, though NT$250 more than the barely clad women.
"I come her for the cheap drinks," said Jin taking another slug from the bottle of beer. "And on nights like tonight, foreigners get in for cheaper [than Taiwanese men] as well."
Jin is taking advantage of a trend that has taken over Taiwan's clubbing scene 〞 especially in the Shida and Gongguan districts of Taipei. Home to two of Taiwan's largest public universities and a host of private colleges, the area boasts a huge student population that has extra cash in their pockets and the freedom for many that accompanies living away from the scrutiny of parents.
"There's no way I could do this if I were living at home," said Francesca, nursing a rum and coke at Club 9%, another club offering all you can drink specials. The 22-year old National Taiwan Normal University student from Chiayi didn't want her surname printed for fear that her parents might see her name in the paper.
"I'd have to be home earlier and there's no way I could drink," she said. Francesca says she goes to Club 9% once a month with friends and avoids other bars because "the drinks are too expensive."
With a NT$500 cover charge, Club Wax and Club 9% are cashing in on a generation of clubbers who are unwilling to pay NT$150 to NT$200 for a drink, the average price for a cocktail or beer.
"It's simple math," said Jason Hu (綸褫?), a 21-year old engineering major. "Why would I pay NT$150 per drink when I can spend NT$500 and drink for the whole night."
Sylvia Hu (綸衱恅), project planner for Full-More Business Management, the company that runs Club 9%, said Club VS was the first to start the all you can drink phenomena four years ago. "We thought we would try it out as a kind of test and because it was so popular with customers we decided to keep it," she said.
With the all-you-can-drink clubs has come bouncers, the tall and mean-looking security standing at the doors. But Hu says that bouncers are generally not necessary because fights rarely occur, even after people are drunk.
"If a fight occurs, we just call the police or have their friends break it up," she said.
Asked if clubs and bars in South Korea offer the same specials as Taiwan, Jin laughs.
"They"d go out of business in a week," he scoffed.
South Korea? hard-hitting drink culture couldn"t provide more of a contrast to Taiwan, he said.
"University students in Korea can be found staggering on the trains at night or passed out on park benches," he said. "I"ve never seen this happen in Taipei."
Indeed, compared to neighbors South Korea and Japan, Taiwan is not known for it? drinking culture, which may be how these all-you-can-drink establishments survive.
Hu said the profit margins on alcohol at regular bars are such that providing all-you-can-drink deals is not a concern. Club 9% is also part of a larger company that operates Club VS and several other establishments. The quantity of alcohol ordered by these bars makes the per-unit price negligible.
"Besides," she said, "most people -- especially women -- will have at most three or four drinks."
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