The Lotus Market sits at the southern end of Qianhai, the most accessible of the three Shichahai lakes, and is the heart of the Houhai bar scene: a curving strip of bars, cafés, and restaurants whose terraces and neon spill out along the water. In summer the lake fills with pedal boats and the banks with drinkers; the atmosphere is more raucous tourist circuit than refined, with touts and competing live bands.
It is loved and loathed in roughly equal measure — at its best on a warm evening with a drink by the water, at its worst when the hard sell wears thin. Walk a little further along the quieter northern banks of Houhai itself for the same lake without the racket.