NYC is raving about Escape the Room but Mr. X has been going strong in Shanghai for over a year. Pick your metaphor: real-life Myst, Sleep No More for puzzles, murder mystery dinner sans dinner … Five rooms, each a different theme and difficulty, hourlong countdown timer, no cellphones, blacklight paint, rotating bookshelves, one lifeline (redeemed by waving to a faceless employee watching via CCTV camera), and an imperviousness—likely obliviousness—toward Western taboo (the theme of one of the early rooms was “Concentration Camp”).

But a taste of the produce of modern China.