This article only represents the author's own views.

A leading Chinese bar chain that struggled during the dark days of Covid is toasting a return to profit, in a sign of renewed life in the nighttime economy. In China, crowds of evening revelers have traditionally been viewed as a symbol of economic prosperity, celebrated in a famous poem from the Tang Dynasty that describes the myriad lights of a bustling night market.

The lights are clearly back on in the country’s bars and the drinks are flowing more freely there, judging from the latest annual earnings guidance from Helens International Holdings Co. Ltd (9869.HK), a hospitality chain popular with a young clientele. The company expects to land back in the black for 2023, citing a gradual recovery in custom after the pandemic as well as business efficiencies, although annual revenues are set to shrink. Certainly, customers have been rediscovering a party atmosphere in China’s taverns and bars since Covid controls were lifted early last year, including tourists checking out the night life. A study published last October by China’s tourism agency found that the volume of nighttime tourism in the eight months to August had exceeded the level in the same period of 2019, the year before the pandemic struck. Tourists made 3.27 nighttime outings per month on average, and 95% of those surveyed expressed a willingness to sample what the leisure and dining sectors had to offer after dark. The report found that 70% of the visitors spent more money on evening entertainments than they did in 2019, pushing China’s nighttime tourism market to 1.57 trillion yuan ($220 billion) in 2023.