Tower of Vice: Shanghai’s Great World

By Tina Kanagaratnam | March 12th, 2025 | Architecture, Bloody Saturday Shanghai, Concession Era, Da Shi Jie, Du Yuesheng, French Concession, Great World, Green Gang, Huang Jinrong, Restricted | 0 Comment

There’s no more notorious symbol of Old Shanghai’s underworld than the pleasure palace that was the Great World—after all, this tiered wedding cake of a building was owned by one of the most powerful gangsters in the city: Huang Jinrong, aka Pockmarked Huang. Read on, for the story: But when the Great World ...