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From early 2008, Shanghailander.net has moved to an independant server, away from typepad. This allows the blog to be viewable in China where typepad is often blocked.To view the latest postings, please click here (www.shanghailander.net). Thank you for following Shanghailander.net.

Shanghailander.net
The blog about old Shanghai

Biased Review

I always try to write unbiased reviews... but this one will be a bit different since I have been involved in creating the book. "Promenades au coeur de l'ancienne concession Francaise" is the new version of an old guide about Shanghai's French concession. As the original one, this book was made by "A pleines mains" an expat charity in Shanghai. Proceeds are used in various help projects in Shanghai and the surrounding cities. The original guide was published in 2002 and has become out of print since then. It has been transformed into a number of guided walks throughout the French Concession. Each walk is about one hour and can be easily fit into a busy afternoon shopping or as a short break in a business trip. Walks are spread the old French Concession and the adjacent Xu Jia Hui area. One of them passes by the entrance of the lane where I live. Fortunately, my house is not included... which will avoid disturbing the quietness of my little private Shanghai.

The book is both in French and English, ensuring that the information collected within the important French community in the city is spread out to every lover of the old Shanghai. The original text was written in 2001 and the original author interviewed a few remaining Chinese survivors of the Concession time. This adds anecdotes and real stories to the book, making it a lively read. Having been interested in the topic for a few years, I still managed to learn quite a few things from it.

I did not design the walks, but I contributed is by landing some of my own collection of old Shanghai postcards and documents to be used as illustration. I am quite proud of having been part of it as the result is really good, but it's for you to judge. If you are looking for a practical book about old Shanghai, it's a good point to start.

Now on Blogger

Welcome to Shanghailander.net on blogger. If you come from the old host, you made it over successfully. I am glad you are staying along. For the newcomers, I write a weekly post about Old Shanghai.
I had been using Typepad as a blog hosting service since the beginning, i.e. two years ago. However, a few months ago Typepad blogs became inaccessible in China. With the Olympics approaching a large number of blogs became blocked. This had not consequence for anybody out of China... but for all my Shanghai friends it became a serious issue. I have tried to go around it using Facebook as a display and giving the address of proxies to a number of friends... but at the end of the day, it is not possible to have a blog about Shanghai... that is not visible in Shanghai. Blogger has been more clever than Typepad on this, introducing a system that allows viewer in China to get through, so I finally move to Blogger.

During my holidays in the Philippines, I have moved all the posts to this new host. The www.shanghailander.net address should be working very soon, i.e. when I have managed to solve some techincal difficulties. That should only take a couple of days. For the subscribers of the blog, there surely is a way to do that in Blogger as well but I have not found it yet. Please send me a mail if you want to continue receive notices about posts.

While moving all the posts I also took time to read them again (and correct some typos). It was a great time to see how this blog has evolved from an simple idea to a weekly column about the great city that is Shanghai. Postings will continue on a weekly basis, so see you at the new address: www.shanghaioldnew.blogspot.com and soon www.shanghailander.net

The perfect Sunday

Warm weather finally has come to Shanghai. Spring 2008 was just a nightmare with gray sky every day for weeks and temperatures remaining around 12 degrees... when they should be above 20. Spring is one of the best time in Shanghai along with autumn... and it has finally started this year. This was an opportunity to spend a great Sunday. A day like this is the best antidote to the restlessness of the city that drives people mad at one point or another.
The perfect Sunday starts with waking up around 9 or 10 am and write or read a little on the balcony. The garden of the old house we live in is full of trees and green leafs have just come out, obscuring the view from all the neighbors. Birds sing in the trees, they create a countryside atmosphere right in the middle of the city. Drinking coffee on the balcony while writing or reading, I just enjoy the view. While Jiajia is waking up, I take my bike to the Paul bakery on Dong Ping Lu a few roads down. I often meet friends in this neighborhood, taking time to chat while buying croissants for breakfast. After eating French pastry and more of the balcony, I jump on my bike again for a trip to the old city.
The peak time of my perfect Sunday is biking along the streets of the former French Concession. I cruise on my bike under the shadow of plane trees. Passing by the old houses, it really feels like I am back in 1930's Shanghai. I generally take Route de Seyes (Yong Jia Lu) up to Route Delastres (Tai Yuan Lu), then going on Fuxing Lu all along the way. Rue Lafayette (the old name of Fuxing Lu) is a one way street with a large bike lane. Crossing right through the whole of the French Concession, it has kept a lot of its old buildings and is still very charming. The end of Fuxing Lu reach into the old Chinese City... that now exists only in some people imagination since most buildings have been destroyed. Fan Bang Lu and Dong Tai Lu antique markets or Wen Miao Temple book market are my favorite places to go to.
Walking through the lines of shops, one needs a lot of attention to spot anything valuable amongst the stacks of stuff piled around. The most interesting sellers are the ones that get in bulk straight the demolition works. They are not the most appealing but something they have hidden gems. Most of the items are of little if any value... but you may find something interesting. This is when strong bargaining is required as the asking price is often beyond any reason. After shopping, I jump back on my back, going home via one of my favorite coffee place on Route Cassini (Taikang Lu) or Citizen Cafe (Jinxian Lu) and enjoying diner with a few friends. This is my perfect Sunday in Shanghai.

Climbing Zo Se (She Shan nowadays)

The Shanghai hills are the nearest thing to a mountain near the city. Driving there takes about 1 hour from the center if traffic is good. Located in the East of the city, it is quite near from the major expatriates area of HongQiao and HuQinPing. Since the opening of the Meridien hotel, is has become popular spot for Sunday family outing. While indulging with delicacies, few people seem to be aware of the hill's history and climb to the top of it.
In the old Shanghai time, SheShan was known as Zose (Sheshan in Shanghainese). The name was also the one of the village at the bottom of the hill. It is mentioned as an interesting excursion from Shanghai in my American Express guide for "Sigthseeing in and around Shanghai" from 1934. The return trip to the hill took then 1 full day starting with train from "Shanghai North Station at 7.10 a.m" arriving at "Sungkiang 8:39am". (Songjiang is now a part of Shanghai, with a metro line reaching is in less than 1/2 hour.) Traveller would then take a boat on the canals reaching Zose "in about 2 and half hour". The guide also recommended to take your own picnic (in a picnic basket) to eat after climbing the hill before going back to Shanghai in a journey of about 4 hours by the same way. It even propose "a more leisurely alternative" in taking a boat on the Suzhou Creek from Shanghai to reach Zose in the evening and climb the hill the next morning. People climbed the hill enjoy the landscape of "surrounding plains, with their villages and cultivated fields and waterways winding like silver bands." Rice paddies in that part of Shanghai are long gone, and villages have been replaced by compound of luxurious villas but the viewing is still very nice from up there.
The attraction on the hill in 1934 was the Observatory established in 1900 by the Jesuits fathers. It was one of the most advanced observatory in Asia. Weather informations were gathered from all over Asia, to be able to predict the weather for sea transportation. Information was sent to Shanghai French Bund for display on the Guslav Tower. The observatory has now been turned into a museum but is still nice to visit.
What is not mentioned on this guide from 1934... is the She Shan cathredral built by the Jesuits and finished in 1935.
The cathedral is the largest in Asia, dominating the surrounding planes. It is very impressive and has been well renovated, after damages done during cultural revolution. Like XuJiaHui Cathedral, it is a strong symbol of the Jesuits presence in this part of the world. It is a nice building and visiting it is a nice complement of a nice meal in the hotel downhill.

Red Mandarin dress

This is the fifth novel of inspector Chen. I read the four others last year, after having seen Qiu Xiaolong speaking at the Shanghai Literary festival. The other novels were really enjoyable, so I could not wait to read this one. At first, it seemed just like another inspector Chen novel. Another young chinese girl killed in strange circumstances in Shanghai in the late nineties. Once again, the novel start with a crime that inspector Chen has to solve... this sounds very much like every one of the inspector Chen novels. But this one deviates from the normal course really fast as the killer starts again one week later. Putting the corpses in very visible location (first on Dong Hu lu / Huai Hai lu), on People Square the murderer is sure to create heavy publicity for himself... just at the time when our favorite inspector is putting his job on the back burner... I won't spoil it all by telling the end, but this new novel is a page turner.
Qiu Xialong novel also evolve one after the other. They are all happening in the 90's in Shanghai, but this one clearly includes a number of element that are more from 2000 Shanghai than 1990. From one novel to the next, we see the character's life evolving and the city change. Part of the intrigue is still base on Cultural revolution and dark secrets from this time that come back to the surface many years later, but the whole topic also becomes broader including more part of Shanghai's history. At the same time, the novel keeps in touch with the city's reality and depicting the specific atmosphere of the transforming city. Reading it was a couple of hours of pure enjoyment.

Reaching Heaven

Saint-Ignace cathedral was a famous landmark of the Old Shanghai. Built by the Jesuits in 1906 at the spot of any earlier one, its two towers were clearly visible from far away. The Catholic cathedral was located in the Jesuits estate in Shanghai, just outside the border of the French concession. The building suffered a lot during cultural revolution, with both towers severely damaged. It was rebuilt in the 1990's and now looks more or less as the original. It is open again for religious services for Chinese catholic Church, for Chinese people only.
The Church may look like the original, but two things have changed. First of all the environment has been totally transformed along those years. The cathedral used to be visible miles away, it is now dwarfed by neighboring buildings and shopping centers. Furthermore, the original stained glasses have disappeared, replaced by plain glass. People are working on trying to put back stained glassed in the cathedral. I recently attended a charity concert to raise money to support this project. I was very much looking for it, as concerts in the church are something unheard of and I was not disappointed.
That night's weather was perfect for it. It had rained the whole day giving a gloomy atmosphere to the city. I was running through the continuous rain, finally getting in after a bit of struggle with the security. The room was full with people, but it was the quietest concert crowd I have ever seen in China. Silence came and shortly after I got in, the Chinese philharmonic orchestra started to play Mozart's requiem. In this extraordinary of the cathedral and the excellent music, one could quickly feel like we were in 1928, not 2008. It was really a touching moment to be able to experience this great music in such an historical place.
The concert finally ended after dies irea, and the crowd of the Shanghai foreign and Chinese high society that was there could have also very well belonged to the 20's or the 30's. The succession of big cars and white gloves drivers at the exit perfectly completed the old Shanghai atmosphere. In the night, you could see the car lights only and the rain helped keeping noise from the nearby avenue down. I was walking under the rain in my trench coat, feeling once again in a time travel to old Shanghai enjoying this wonderful and unique evening.