Shanghai’s Hidden Ming Temple
In a narrow lane off the Nanjing Road pedestrian street stands a small, shabby box of a building. It’s no match for the flash and buzz of the famous street, yet its powers are so mighty that it has remained part of Shanghai life since the Ming Dynasty. On the roof, a plain red sign with ...
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The Ultimate Historic Shanghai Gift Guide 2019
‘Tis the season – the shopping season, that is – so it’s time for our annual guide of the very best gifts that celebrate Shanghai’s unique heritage. Pro tip: for one-stop Shanghai heritage shopping, Madame Mao's Dowry is the best place in town, hands down. 207 Fumin Lu/Julu Lu, and ...
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Old Shanghai Cinemas: Insights from a Logbook
by Tess Johnston// Back in 2010, I found in a local antique market an old ledger covered in brown wrapping paper, with a handsomely-penciled inscription on the front: [caption id="attachment_2406" align="aligncenter" width="642"] [Not the actual log book - our artist's impression!][/caption]A ...
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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 ...
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Cai Zhen: Painter of Old Shanghai
Inspired by her own heritage, Cai Zhen paints the heritage buildings of old Shanghai, bathing them in sunlight and vibrant color. [caption id="attachment_2288" align="alignleft" width="224"] Cai Zhen, self portrait[/caption] We first encountered Madame Cai at an art exhibition featuring the watercolor ...
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Cicadas: Shanghai’s Summer Song
"All the different kinds of cicada are now in full song .... most noticeable is the longdrawn song of the big black cicada, whose strident screech fills the air for periods of half a minute to a minute at a time, ceases for a while, and then starts again." Arthur de Carle Sowerby, Nature Notes, ...
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Shanghai’s Forgotten Courtyard
You’d think there’d be no more surprises left in Shanghai - surely drones, digital maps, and amateur historians have unearthed them all. But here, just a building’s breadth from busy Wulumuqi Lu, stands a timeless Chinese courtyard house. Imagine away everything around it, and this house could be ...
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