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Nanjing Road

The Early Shanghai Photographs of Pierre Gendron

Sometime between the 1880s and early 1900s, a Frenchman named Pierre Gendron photographed Shanghai. And miraculously, his glass stereoscopic slides, some of the earliest photographs of Shanghai in existence, have survived. As a banker based in Hué (which was then French Indochina), Pierre traveled throughout the region—to ...

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 ...

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 two bright yellow ...