The ’20s Gala: Farewell, 2020, Hello, 1920s!
It was a 1930s photo of a grand soirée in the ballroom of the Cercle Sportif Français that inspired the “Farewell 2020, Hello, 1920s” Gala. Hu Ping, the founder of the Shanghai Culture Society, showed us the photo, and the rest … is Gala history. Left: The inspiration. Right: The '20s Gala. Same ballroom, ...
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Historic Shanghai Year in Review 2019
In our 21st year, we spent more time than we would have liked racing to see neighborhoods before they vanish. Laoximen, Xiaonanmen, Jinling Road, Hongkou, Siwen Li – the list goes on. The Laoximen neighborhood is slated for redevelopment, and although most residents have moved out, it remains our most popular ...
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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 urgency to taking a last ...
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The Shanghai Snows of Yesteryear
January 20, 2026: As a rare snow falls in Shanghai today, we thought it a good time to look back on the snows of Shanghai past. Please enjoy this reprise of our post on the Great Snow of 2008, from January 31, 2008! January 29 2008, Gao'an Road/Rue Cohen. Photo: Patrick Cranley. Shanghai’s climate is notorious for ...
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Historic Shanghai Year in Review 2017
A look back at the last 12 months of walking through Shanghai’s storied history: the walks, the talks, the tours, the films, the cocktails, and an Art Deco weekend, too. 2017 highlights included our springtime jaunt to Xiamen, the treaty port formerly known as Amoy, for a fabulous Amoy Art Deco Weekend. We ...
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Historic Shanghai’s Year in Review 2015
A look back on the tours, the talks, and that splendiferous World Congress on Art Deco that made up our 2015. [caption id="attachment_632" align="alignleft" width="255"] Stained glass dragon at the T'ou-se-wei orphanage, seen on our Easter Walking tour.[/caption] The Year in Numbers 14 tours 25 World Congress ...
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5 Things You Didn’t Know About Old Shanghai
The Jewish Ghetto & The Final Solution Shanghai had been home to a substantial Jewish population since foreigners first started arriving at its ports. There were multiple waves of Jewish immigration into Shanghai – Sephardic Jewish traders from the Middle East arrived starting in the 1840s, and European ...
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