The Tycoon & The Artist at No. 3 Baoqing Road
Psst! Wanna get inside two hard-to-get-into heritage villas? You’ve come to the right place. Getting inside the Shanghai Symphony Museum's heritage buildings is said to be one of the city's most difficult entrées, but this Saturday (July 12), Historic Shanghai is in. More info here. Read on for the story! The ...
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The Classical Gardens of Shanghai
Classical Chinese gardens in the springtime are a beautiful sight, but they’re an even more profound experience when you know what you’re looking at. This Sunday (April 27, 11am) we’re visiting Guyi Garden with Shelly Bryant, author of The Classical Gardens of Shanghai. It’s a remarkable, revealing experience, as ...
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The Shanghai Foreigners’ Cemetery
Bringing flowers to the Foreigners’ Cemetery at Soong Ching Ling Memorial Park has become something of an Historic Shanghai Qingming tradition. On the day when Chinese honor their ancestors by cleaning their graves and leaving offerings, we visit the graves of long-ago foreigners who died in a faraway land. Plus, you meet ...
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Tower of Vice: Shanghai’s Great World
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 ...
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The Soong House on Seymour Road: A Pictorial Tour
There are several Soong houses in Shanghai that you can visit, but the modest house on Shaanxi Bei Lu that was the family home for more than a decade is not open to the public. So, for your viewing pleasure, some photos (from our private 2020 visit)! The Soong front door Original tile, front door Just inside ...
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The Garden Bridge: Misunderstanding, War, and a Century’s Worth of History
This Sunday (July 13), we'll take an evening stroll along the banks of the Suzhou Creek, exploring its history and some of the 31 bridges that span its length. Some are delights, some surprises, some historic marvels - but none is more famous, or more photographed than the Garden Bridge. Read on for the story, and click ...
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St. Theresa’s Church: A Shanghai Story
The story of St. Theresa’s Church is the story of Shanghai. From the 1927 White Terror to French Jesuit missionaries, a 19th century saint, 20th century radios, and a 21st century reimagining. St Theresa’s was completed in 1931, and from the beginning was truly a church of this cosmopolitan city: located in the ...
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