i have to disagree with you on this point. while the death of the south bar street has certainly thrown a wrench in the beijing nighttime landscape, i would still argue that is much more fun. the only hard evidence i can posit in support of my position is that every single one of my sh friends has been blown away to the point that they won't debate this topic any more.

in sh, you can spend your wednesday's at zapata's with 2000+ fellow expats, who you can also brush shoulders with at park, vip room, dkd, or bar rouge on weekends, but beijing is considerably more interesting imo. this is due to several reasons:

-beijingers have more disposable income
-beijingers have interests beyond money
-as a nasty, politically oppressed city, beijing has fostered a vibrant art and music scene; some of the punk bands i've seen at yugong yishan blow the stuff i used to listed in college out of the water
-in beijing, it's perfectly acceptable to try out new places
-house parties are easy to pull off and always successful in beijing; in sh, people just sit around and think about park/guandi

give me a ring next time you're in town and i'll show you myself. the same offer holds for sh.