Chinastraat

Between the dock and the tracks

Between the Houtdok and the Muide tracks, the Chinastraat site has served as a cultural occupation of the Oude Dokken for years, with urban development already announced in the background. The building is a former factory: industrial walls, a garden built with reclaimed materials, and rooms that go dark when the club starts. Bar Bricolage, the summer bar on the same premises, has existed since 2016. By February 2017, the name Chinastraat was already appearing on indoor and outdoor parties. The door remains at Chinastraat 1, less than a fifteen-minute bike ride from the center of Ghent.

The garden by day, the club by night

From April to September, the garden opens with handmade structures, a stone pizza oven, Sunday markets, open-air sets, and big-screen cinema. The daytime section is family-friendly: you can arrive with children, stay for a meal, or wait for the sunset over the dock. At night, the focus shifts. There is a main club room, darkened, of about 450 m², with a stage and dance floor, and another smaller room, also dark, of about 150 m². A multipurpose hangar and an exhibition area allow the venue to be divided or opened entirely. It is not a single-format box: the night is set up according to who is hosting it.

Label nights and a short deadline

The schedule mixes concerts, club nights, and label takeovers. Industrial techno sets, drum and bass, open-air electronica, and label takeovers like Giegling have passed through here. When Modul'air closes its daytime shift in its warehouse, the after-party crosses the street and continues at Chinastraat, with two rooms and late-night hours. In 2025, that continuity was almost cut short. The land passed from Ghelamco to PSR, a subsidiary of Jan De Nul, and the plan speaks of a neighborhood with more than 300 homes and a marina. Nearly 5,500 signatures requested that the site not disappear. The baton was taken up by a collective of hospitality and nightlife figures from Ghent: Reach For More, Modul'air, and the Dertien group, the one behind Funke, Het Spijker, Marimain, and Afsnis. The garden reopened on April 4, 2025, with a horizon of two or three years before construction begins. In 2026, the venue is still running, between the indoor dance floor and the garden, waiting for the dock to change its use.