Beijing's Lan Club

A dining room at Beijing's LAN Club.

PHOTO: Courtesy LAN Club

For a snapshot of the new China in all its ostentatious glory, book a table at Beijing's Lan Club, the 60,000-square-foot bar and dining complex owned by fashionable female restaurateur Zhang Lan. Designed by Philippe Starck, this year-old, over-the-top boîte makes the decorative taste of Starck's fellow Frenchman Louis XIV look like an exercise in pared-down Minimalism. Taking up an entire floor of the LG Building, in the Chaoyang District, the club is decorated with bronze statues of eagles in flight, velvet chaise longues, massive crystal chandeliers and oil paintings that are mounted on the ceiling. Corridors are lined with shelves of Hindu icons, Christian votive candles, and stuffed birds, and the table settings look as if Marie Antoinette were about to host dinner. Once you stop gaping and turn your attention to the menu, you'll find plenty of modern, flavorful Szechuan dishes, such as spare ribs with chiles and spices, along with some Western staples (try the rack of lamb). But good food is not the primary draw: LAN Club is the place for Beijing's social set to preen publicly—or not. The truly coveted spots are the thirty-five curtained-off VIP rooms, where the city's movers and shakers puff on Cuban cigars, sip Champagne and down oysters—all in tune with the zeitgeist of their emerging country. 4/F Twintowers, B-12 Jianguomenwai Avenue, Chaoyang District; 011-86-10-5109-6012; lanbeijing.com.