5 Reasons to Visit the Old City Right Now

This autumn, we’ve seen the atmospheric Old Chinese City disappearing with unprecedented speed. Sure, it’s been slowly vanishing for years, but a recent visit saw one of our favorite sections demolished, and recently living neighborhoods emptied out and boarded up. The recent rapid clip adds an urgency to taking a last look at one of the most special places in Shanghai: Inside the old walled city.

There’s nothing quite like the Old City, the oldest part of Shanghai: it’s a world unto itself, with its gloriously eclectic architecture and stories that go back generations, before the foreigners ever arrived. For now, we can still walk through the streets that remain, in dystopian, empty neighborhoods, where architectural details once obscured by the clutter of living are now revealed, but it won’t last: these streets may not see another Chinese New Year.

Saturday December 16, 10am Inside the Walled City RMB 200 members, 300 nonmembers Scan the QR below to book or click here.

1/ The Stories, written into these lanes and walls. Above the doorways are carved the tales of generations: wedding blessings, elegantly worded wishes for fortune and happiness, poetic couplets from ancient books. Stories from the classics are carved in exquisite detail in courtyards. Boundary stones are chiseled with the names of illustrious families.