Yellow Mountains

As in today's Shanghai, many foreign residents of the old Shanghai rarely left the sprawling city. As the small frontier port transformed into Asia largest megalopolis, time needed to reach the countryside became longer and longer. Furthermore, warlords fighting, civil war, bandits and finally Japanese invasion did not help making trips outside the city any easier.
The ones adventurous enough to leave the protection of the foreign settlements could reach quite a few interesting sights. Just like today, Hangzhou's lake, Suzhou's garden and pagodas and Qingdao's beaches were high on the list. HuangShan (the yellow mountain) was also within reach. Travellers would take the overnight train and climb the mountains by foot, just like some people still do today. Carl Crow, the famous advertising agent used to do it quite often.
I recently went to Huang Shan and few things have changed... although there is not a cable car most things are carried up there by people and the mountains are still the same. More photos are available following this link.

Paramount's suicide

Paramount Club was the hippest dancing hall in old Shanghai. The main hall had a big orchestra playing jazz and twist tunes for the enjoyment of the dancing crowd. Taxi girls, romance and gangsters in the corners, Paramount had it all. Fortunately, the building survived until today, having kept it's tower and a big part of its style. It is still a landmark of Shanghai. The top floor or the building still hosts a broadway style musical. It is far from broadway's quality but one can have diner in style there, while watching a live musical. It's not what it used to be, but the old lady still manages to keep up appareances. Going to the paramount show is one of those old Shanghai moments that I affectionate so much.
The outside of the building has more or less kept it's original shape and inside was also preserved in original state... until recently. This is the much talked about renovation of the Paramount. I had heard about it and ended up one night there. Having seen the original I was expecting the worse... and the worse it is. Some Taiwanese investor spread a large amount of money on this venerable old lady and it just turns into a disaster. The entrance has been transformed with bad design, not to mention the chandeliers (cheap copies of the Bar Rouge ones). This is supposed to impress... it probably does impress peasants from the country side, but Paramount's lobby is very far to be the most elegant or the most original of Shanghai's bars. The entrance is bad enough, but the main room is the worst. If you like nightclubs in second and third tiers cities in China... you will feel right at home in the new Paramount. There is not one single fixture from the old room that can be recognized. Everything has been done to destroy or cover the old walls. Any brand new shopping center or 1970's concrete building could have been built the same way. Forget the original parquet, the balconies and the charm of this old lady.
The worst is not even there. Without the old colonial atmosphere of Glamour Bar or Face, bar Rouge designers managed to hide the age and create a hype and highly original place. Muse or Muse2 (ex Wynn's win) designers did the same in another genre, and all those places definitely have an originality and an atmosphere. One may not like them all, but they are memorable. Paramount is memorable for it's dullness. I am sure that the new owner spent millions to redecorate it, but it does not get anywhere near the above mentioned. Paramount clearly remind me of clubs I visited in Chengdu or in Guilin... not of Shanghai's cream of the crop. The worst is probably that the sound was so bad in the building. Please somebody teach them how to set there sound system properly.
I have read a number of articles flattering this new club... we must not have been to the same place... or the articles were written after a few free boozes generously offered by the club. The saddest part of the story is not that some Taiwanese spent a lot of money on creating something that is just bad. This could have been done anywhere, without destroying one of the few remaining Shanghai's old icons. When some parts of the old Shanghai are used to create mix of the old and the new, Paramount's owners just did not get anywhere.

Majesty up the street

Majestic Theater is one of the old Shanghai survivors. The outside of the building does not look much anymore. The façade has been not been cleaned or repainted for a long time, and various advertising and neon lights have been added to it without any concern to the original design. In contrast, the inside is a great example of Art Deco theatre architecture. The entrance hall is probably in the original state, with high windows and a grand staircase. The inside of the theater with large waves and parallel lines is also an art deco showcase. There is little decoration in it, apart from the architecture and it’s quite refreshing compared to other old buildings in Shanghai. In any case, I hope that nobody will try to “renovate” the interior by adding some mint green, peach yellow or bright blue to it like in other places.
World famous musicals have started to come to Shanghai few years ago. “Phantom of the Opera”, “The Lion King” and this year “Mamma Mia”, all of them stayed in town for one to two months. They all came to Shanghai Grand theater on People Square (in the middle of the horse race track of the old Shanghai), the pearl of the modern Shanghai. 42^nd street the musical probably had a lesser budget and a tighter production. Instead of a long stay in Shanghai, they went on a tour to Chinese major cities. Majestic theater was chosen for Shanghai and it was a great choice.
42^nd street is the stage adaptation of a famous musical movie from 1933. Although the play itself is from the 80’s, it was modeled after the 30’s and the result is amazing. The dancing, the singing and tap dancing create magic and transport us back to the 1930’s. It is a real Broadway show that is worth every penny of it.The show was great and the art deco location added a lot to the atmosphere. 1930’s décor were art deco styled and they fitted the Majestic theater perfectly. The magic of the show mixed with the magic of the old Shanghai. 42^nd street is also a simpler kind of show relying mostly on the dancers and the small orchestra traveling with them as opposed to a massive production. All of it made it a great night during and after the show. Even after leaving the theater, Bubbling Well road (today Nanjing Xi Lu) had the air of the old Shanghai for a moment, before getting in a taxi a going back to Frenchtown. If the taxi had been a 1930’s car the illusion would have been perfect.

The return of the Dauphine

Jianguo lu (ex Route Frelupt) is one of these small streets in Shanghai old French concession. Walking around it, one can admire an long line of old villas, sometimes interrupted by a small cubic building from the 1970's. A lot of these villas have not been touched for years, but slowly these old ladies get a face lift and recover their former glory.
I noticed one of those building, with street side Grey and dirty, unwelcoming walls topped with barb wires. My own apartment is not so far from it, so I cycle around it quite often. Looking between the gate doors, I could see that this military building was the Dauphine, one of the landmark of Leonard & Vesseyre, the architecture company that built most of the Art Deco buildings in the French Concession. The walls were Grey and looked uncared for. It is clear that the building was used by the Chinese army and that they did not care about it. The inside of the building was probably not renovated, just covered by layer of dirt but near to its original state. But due to it's military status, the Dauphine Building and its garden were out of touch for old Shanghai's amateurs like me.
I was cycling along one of those lazy Saturdays of summer, when I realized that the door to the Dauphine was open. As a matter of fact, they were doing work on the pavement in front of the building. I rushed home to take my camera backpack. Playing the innocent, I talked my way in pretending to just have a look. The building looks great again as the outside renovation has kept the old look. As opposed to other renovations of Art Deco building, the original shape has been kept untouched. Balconies have been left open and the original iron windows have been kept in place and not replaced by horrible plastic sliding windows. The tiling on the facade has also been kept in it's original state. The Dauphine looks just as it did 70 years ago. The outside is a great work of preservation.
I walked into the garden and then got through the entrance door. Inside view was far from thrilling, as the building interior has been gutted and replaced by modern imitation. Fake marble is everywhere and I am sure gold will be splashed all around. The work is far from finished and I only could stay there a few minutes before being asked to go... but it's clear that interior was not part of the preservation program. The return of the Dauphine is both a good and a bad surprise. It's a great outside renovation (apart from the garden that is getting its kitch touch) recreating the Grand Shanghai atmosphere from a building left in abandon. At the same time, the original interior is gone away as are all the furniture and fixtures, another post-modern minimalistic fake interior replacing the original art deco. I guess I should look at the bright picture and enjoy the bright new outside... and the fact that this great building was at least saved from destruction. Too bad for the interior though.

The Fall of Kashgar

Savage destruction of old cities is nothing unusual for people living in today's China. We all have witnessed the fast disappearance of the Hutongs of Beijing and of the Shikumens in Shanghai. These are the most well known examples of what has been happening in China since the 50's. Commercialization and economic opening have accelerated the process since the late 90's, fueled by the appetite of mega real estate companies. They eagerly transform century old ways of communication into "Prime real estate location" with great potential return. In the meantime, they forget that the value of the land was mostly created by the generations that walked these streets before, much more than by the cheaply built concrete stacks they added up on the top of it. This is clearly supported by all kind of authorities whose interest in the process varies from genuine (but sometimes misplaced) will to propel people into a brand new world... to more direct lucrative personal interest. Often both are closely intertwined, the former being an excellent excuse for the later.
Kashgar's case is even more touching, as one can easily feel the ideological touch behind it. Walking in the old city, you fell like you are somewhere between Tehran or Marrakesh, as far away from Beijing as you can be. The last remains of the century old city walls are used as junkyards and old tombs are being surrounded by concrete blocks. A Chinese city that looks totally out of place was created next to the old Kashgar. It is still possible to see really old remains but one really has to look for it out of the fast reducing central old quarter. Most of them are one or two floors buildings surrounded by concrete blocks with blue windows and white tiles... they are scheduled for destruction soon. The most ridiculous of it all is the Aldous Huxley's Brand New World style new city that is standing empty in the middle of the countryside. Designed to host people living in the old city, it remains unused as the inhabitants refuse to leave traditional habitat. The new argument to move them out is the scare of earthquake, somewhat reminding of the destruction of Bam in Iran in 2003. This is surely a real danger, but I somehow doubt whether the quickly built concrete blocks would resist any better to an earthquake that traditional constructions.
Fast destruction of Kashgar is such a remainder of the fast destruction of my beloved Shanghai. Replacing traditional houses with concrete blocks seems the instant solution to urbanization questions at each end of the country.

Life at the end of the lane

Old Zhang is sitting in his home, at the end of the lane, looking at the cranes tearing down the street. “I was born in this street, and now they break it down. It does not look so good but I am used to it and to this neighborhood. ‘Your house is not just a shag, it’s a jewel of XIXth century colonial architecture.’ I’m not sure what it means, but it’s what a passing by foreigner told me with his terrible Chinese. He also told me that the cube of a house next door was a jewel of Art Deco. I am not sure what he meant about either but this all seamed pretty important for him. It does not matter anymore, he has gone away and they torn down this house last week.
They told me that it’s for the best, that our life in a far away suburb, in a new high rise building will be so much comfortable. It’s surely true, but I don’t want to go. It’s not the little money they want to give us to move away, that will be enough in any case. I can’t remember the name of this new place and I don’t even want to learn it. All my friends will be lost, spread into various districts, and I will loose all my life with it. It’s maybe the future, but I’m not sure I want to be part of it. The past was tough some times, but not always so bad. I am so sad for Shanghai and my home that the skyscrapers are rapidly eating.
My son already moved to this new apartment and loves it. He often comes by to take me there, but I still refuse to go. Old Ma, my old neighbor, moved into one of this new tower about a year ago. He was the first ones to go, moving with a smile on his face, realizing the long life dream to have a place of his own. He had been promised long time ago to get an apartment and it finally came. He disappeared for a while, and then started to come back. He comes here everyday now. It takes him hours to cross the whole city, just to enjoy old friends and familiar places. He says life is comfortable there, but there is nobody to talk to. My life has always been at the end of this lane and I can’t imagine it differently. Seeing it disappear makes me feel that I am also going to die soon.

Budapest old and new

As much as a I love Shanghai, it was not the first city I fell in love with. Getting used to the Chinese megalopolis was actually not easy coming from the charming Central European City of Budapest. I have spent more than 5 years walking the paved streets of this XIXth century beauty. I knew about every corner of several districts, in particular the 6^th district, home of numerous theatres and cafés.
Though I left the city about 4 years ago, I have managed to come back regularly, being able to keep a strong link with my old community of friends. The city still feels like home, though the more time passes the more my memories separate from reality. The pioneer spirit that pushed a lot of foreigners to come to Hungary10 years ago seems to have somehow vanished... they are all in China now. The community of pioneers who arrived in the early – mid 90’s in Budapest is getting smaller and smaller. We had a real group of friends, most of us are gone away… just like me. The remaining ones are busy climbing the corporate ladder or heavily involved in raising their kids. Their daily life is far remote from the group of bachelors and young couples that we used to be. To my surprise, some of my friends now only meet when I am in town… passing by from China. After a few days, I miss the speed and energy of today’s Shanghai. The Budapest when I lived in was full of hopes and new energy, most of it seems to have vanished.
The city is getting more beautiful, transforming from a dark intriguing labyrinth to a colorful tourist paradise. Thanks to a current real estate boom, old buildings are being renovated into former glory, or torn down to be replaced by new. The mix creates a nice atmosphere that is catching up with Vienna or Munich. It has become a nice Central Europe city within the European Union, as opposed to this mysterious city so attractive because of its mystery. I am sure new people still arrive and create there own little world here… but it’s just not the same for me. Budapest is still a great place to visit and I always invite my overseas friends to go there. Shanghai is where my life is.

So many things to do... so little time

In an age of light speed communication, I did not take the time for month to write a post on this blog. It’s always the same spiral, when one loses the habit, try to catch up and ends up forgetting about at the end. It’s not that I did not want any more, time seems to have just fly these last months. Work has been intense in the first half of the year, and two major changes have been swallowing most of my free time including the one dedicated to blog writing.

First of all I have to introduce my girlfriend Jiajia to my readers. We have been together since late last year and our relationship is going strong. Although she does not write it, Jiajia has a major influence on this blog. She is one of the very few Chinese people that I know who is actually interested in Shanghai’s history. We go to markets together, bargaining with sellers and discovering even more interesting things. As a matter of fact, my research into the old Shanghai has become a lot of our research into the old Shanghai. I have also become the president of the French Speaking association of Shanghai
(www.cerclefrancophonedeshanghai.com). Although I am highly honored to be elected at this post, it swallows an enormous lot of my time, again competing with other activities such as reading books and writing this blog. I have been kind of submerged by it and it’s now only that I am on vacation that I finally find time to actually write. It’s not that I missed ideas, as the stack of my old documents related to Shanghai has increased a lot since the time I stopped writing… but other priorities came along. I also had to stop my Chinese lessons and I am not sure that I will be able to restart them anytime soon. I will try to be more thorough about this from now and catch back with writing this blog.

The Master of rain

Field is a young English officer in the Shanghai Municipal Police, freshly arrived from Yorkshire. Through his uncle high in the Shanghai establishment, he is very quickly introduced to both the high Shanghai society, and the less glamorous parts of the megalopolis. The master of Rain is a crime novel based in Shanghai 1927, centered around the resolution of furious murders of Russian prostitutes. Field tries is best to solve the murder, along with his newly found friend, the American detective Capresi. They are surrounded by a fallen White Russian noble turned into serving men (Natasha Medvedev) and the Taipan of one of the largest trade house (Charles Lewis), all of it under the shadow of the king of Shanghai's mafia.

Although I bought this book without knowing anything about it, I have loved every page. Tom Bradby was the foreign correspondent for a British TV. Based in Hong Kong, he clearly used a lot of time and efforts to research and recreate the old Shanghai in his novel. Characters have the right tone and locations in the city have been thoroughly researched. Only Shanghai experts will notice a few omissions, or inventions but they never deviate too far from documented history. Action flows at a fast pace making this book a real page turner.

Though enjoying the book tremendously, I have to admit that the universe created by Tom Bradby has a lot of sight, but very few sounds, smell or taste. It fails a little to immerse us in the (noisy) streets of Shanghai. There is a also a little too much indulgence in making the characters meet various historical figure (such a Borodin) without any need for the actual story. The actual plot is sometimes bizarre and the book leaves many questions unanswered, which is a bit disappointing for a crime novel. Finally, the sexual serial crime at the center of the novel seems a little odd in the 1930's.

Nevertheless, The Master of Rain is a great introduction to the old Shanghai, recreating the Paris of the East and illustrating the high life of a few as well as the hard life of many. As a quick introduction to the Old Shanghai, it comes highly recommended.

Quelques grammes de culture dans un monde de brutes

The above title refers to a famous French TV 1980's advertising. Lindt chocolate was described as "Quelques grammes de finesse dans un monde de brute" (that could be translated as "a few moments of light in a very dark world"). This really applies to the Shanghai International Literary Festival. As much as I like Shanghai, this city is not a cultural center, but the festival brings a lot of it to us.

Shanghai International Literary Festival was taking place this month. As a literature fan and heavy reader, I spent most of my weekends at the conferences.Events take place in the wonderful atmosphere of Glamour Bar, giving it a real touch of the old Shanghai. The old building of Bund #5, renovated by lovers of Old Shanghai with a touch of modernity is the perfect cradle for the event. In the city of modern skyscrapers, electronic billboard advertising and constant marketing noisy aggression taking about a "old" media like book was a blessing. The weather was foggy, modern towers in the other side of the river were disappearing through the mist. Looking at the next door building (3 on the Bund), it felt like we were back in the days of old Shanghai. We were listening to a single person talking about their love of writing and books, just like our predecessors must have done decades ago. I enjoyed the conferences tremendously, as well as the highly cultural atmosphere.

I have to admit that I did not read most of the books that were discussed before the sessions, but I left with a massive stack of reading to do. Conferences I enjoyed including Qiu Xialong (writer of the chief inspector Chen), Amy Tan ("The Joy Luck Club"), Arlette Shleifer ("Le Bar Rouge" which ends on the Bund), Xiaolu Guo ("A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for lovers") and many others. The closing session of the festival was the launching of the new guide to the Bund by Peter Hibbard.

Shanghai is not the city of culture, but the literary festival definitely brings a lot on that field. Thanks to this great event, Shanghai is becoming a little bit more of a world cultural city.

City of the flat world

"The World is flat" is a book from Thomas Friedman about globalization and the changes it is bringing to the world, companies and individuals. The main point is that the World has become a level playing field on a worldwide basis.
The collapse of Marxist Leninist style of regimes has allowed 3 billions of people (Russia, China, India and others) to join the capitalist system. The Internet and other technologies have made communicating with the whole word something easy. Work flow software allows to cut service work into pieces that can be separated and done anywhere in the world, before being put together. This was previously only possible with production of goods. Manufacturing is now "off-shored" to places like China. Services can be "outsourced offshore". Most people connected to the Internet can "upload" their creations or point of view in such things as this blog, or wikipedia (that is very difficult to access in China because it's banned). All data and information created by humans can be accessed and searched via search engines and the Internet.
I read this book within a few days mostly in the plane as I was traveling between Asia and Europe. For most people involved in international business, it's very clear that the world has actually gone flat. Although, the book did not bring much news to me, it's still enjoyable to read an analysis of this phenomenon that is influencing our lives so greatly. The version I read was the one from 2006, that was already revised, though I think one point was missing. Friedman explain clearly that the information is becoming much more diverse, with a very large share of the Internet being in other languages than English... but the reasoning does not go to the logical conclusion, i.e. that native English speakers should also learn foreign languages instead of waiting for others to learn there, being able to master it along with their own.
During the whole reading, I could not stop thinking about Shanghai today. This city is the center of the business battlefield for the largest market in the world. Any company of a respectable size has to be in China and most multinational companies make it the center of their growth for the next decades. As a consequence, the city is full with foreigners from any nationality you can think of. Shanghai today is one of the metropolis of the flat world... and will maybe become it's capital though there is still a long way to go. Thanks to Friedman's "flattening factors" Shanghai is everyday becoming more of a world city.

Qian Xiang Fang

Walking around Wing On I have tried to find the restaurant on 4th and 5th floor of the Wing On department store that I mentioned in a previous posting. The old Wing On has only restaurants on 6th and 7th floor, that are not inspiring at all. The New Wing On has a restaurant on the 7th Floor that is called 7th Heaven. This place seems to have been really famous in the old Shanghai, but the renovation has not left much of the old atmosphere. Going around the old building for a last look, I was attracted by a groups of tourists going through a back door with a restaurant sign above it. Because of the long queue to get into the lift, I climbed the 5 floors of stairs noticing that they were very well renovated... This was little compared to the beauty of the restaurant itself, Xian Qiang Fang.

The wonderful renovation of what used to be the restaurant and ballroom of the Wing On was a wonderful surprise. It has been done with a lot of taste, a lot of attention to details and great preservation of history of this building. Most of the original flooring has been preserved, as well as the radiators, doors and other equipment. Some modern touch has been added without changing the grandeur feeling of the place. The main restaurant room features a high ceiling and old style furniture, giving a real classic touch. Food is great and well served by an effective staff. Many tourists are dining in the private room, but they don't really invade the main space.

Xian Qiang Fang was made by the same group than Yong Fu Elite and The Door, others famous restaurants in Shanghai. This restaurant is perfectly re-creating the 1920's and 1930's Shanghai atmosphere. This is by far the best part of the visit of Wing On and a great addition to it. It also proves that the grandeur of Shanghai's history can be brought back with a modern touch.

Xian Qiang Fang, 4h & 5th Fl, 600 JuiJiang Rd, Shanghai - Tel:021-63515757

Wing On

Shanghai has always been the place where new developments where brought to China. Department stores were of the main features, starting to populate Nanjing Road from 1913. Wing On was the third shop to open in 1918 after Whiteaway Laidlaw & Co (1913) and Sincere (1917) (more information about the history of Wing On this article from Shanghai Star). Wing On was clearly one of the most influential department stores in China, setting the trend for others in Shanghai and other cities.
Fortunately, the Wing On shop still exists and is still a department store. After many changes of names, the Wing On company of HongKong got it back and the shop is now called Wing On again.
The exterior has been recently renovated, making it once again one of the stars of Nanjing Road. An additional building was erected in the 1930's next to the original one. It also has a shopping center on the bottom (now hosting a massive Giordano shop), with an hotel above it. Both buildings are linked by two bridges that do not seem to be used anymore.
Unfortunately, renovation of the interior of both buildings has left very little of the original construction. They look just the same as the brand new shopping centers built in other parts of the city. The old time spirit has been completely lost, though I recently learned that the 4th and 5th floors of the old building that used to be the restaurant and dance hall have been turned into a Old Shanghai themed restaurant. I will have to check that out soon. Wing On and Sincere (the opposite department store) used to feature various animals and displays to attract people to the shops. Wing On seems to have restarted the trend, as they had 3 peacocks and a few other birds in a large cage in front of the shop in early March this year. This was attracting a lot of attention from people passing by, renewing an old tradition.
The object featured in this post is an original letter size note paper pad from Wing On marking the 14the anniversary of the shop. As the opening of Wing On was 1918, one can guess that this article was produced in 1932. I Actually found 2 of them of slightly different colors at the same time. Of course, the paper has become a little yellow but once again having this object in hand is like a transportation to the old Shanghai, it's department stores and busy shopping streets.

Sliding doors

Shanghai underground train is one of the feature of the new Shanghai. As opposed to Beijing which metro was started in the 50's with Soviet help, Shanghai Metro was only started in the 90's. New lines are being built at fast speed, opening the one after the other. The first time I was in Shanghai in 1998, line 1 was just starting with only a few stations. Line 1 has been expended, line 2, 3, 4 and 5 have been put into actions. The Shanghai Metro authority just opened the extension of line 2 towards Hong Qiao.
The only real node was People Square station for a long time. Peak hours in the corridor going from Line 1 to Line 2 is just like going through a sea of black hair. Riding the metro then always involves a lot of pushing around in the very dense crowd. The trains and stations get packed and everybody is jut trying to keep a little space for him/herself, and trying not to fall on other people. No politeness or manners in here and people nearly climb on each other sometimes. It feels a little like Paris metro on strikes days, when the number of trains is drastically reduced. The most funny or annoying is that people climbing in the train often don't let people go out first. This always creates a mess, and one has to sometimes push people out to be able to escape. I have to admit that education campaigns seem to have an effect as now people step out more often if they are blocking the way, as well as (sometimes) give up their sit for elderlies or women with kids.
Until last year, the Shanghai Metro was relatively simple. The older stations were not really fancy, but pretty effective in carrying tens of thousand people a day. Since then, Shanghai metro has embark on a campaign for modern and fancy look by adding glass sliding doors on the platforms. I am not so sure what is the reason for it. Local people say that people have regularly jumped on the tracks, needing a brand new wall to stop that. As incidents and delays do not seem that frequent I am just convinced that Shanghai metro wants to look like a "world city metro". Like in HongKong and Singapore, they need sliding glass doors. This is where the Shanghai twist comes in. Work was started in some of the stations, without any announcement. There was very little protections for the passengers on the platform. Even better, the glass partitions were installed, but the doors whould not be operating. This made passengers feel very safe behind the glass protection... until they realise that the door was not there... generally when the train was arriving. This whole mess made it look pretty disorganised and even dangerous for unaware passengers. Not all the doors are functioning yet, but after a few monts of being interrupted in the middle, work has restarted. Major stations on line 1 have been equipped and completion now seems near. I am sure the people selling glass doors and separations must have had great connections with the metro authorities. They must now be celebrating. With glass doors and seperations in the it's metro, Shanghai is trying to become a little more of a world city.

Sweet like chocolate

Last Saturday was again focused on cruising antic markets. I was showing my favorite spots to a visiting friend, hoping to find something interesting in these old relics.

The item I brought back was one of the weirdest ever, the wrapping paper of chocolate that looked really old. I am not sure exactly when it was used but it' clearly from the 1920's or 30's. The chocolate contained in it was made by Bianchi chocolate factory, located on 23 Nanking Road (Nanjing Dong lu 23 today). The address is written in Latin letters and in Chinese characters on the brown paper. Although I have not been to this specific address yet, it's surely on the beginning on Nanjing lu, around the Sasoon House (Peace hotel today) and the Palace hotel (Peace hotel South wing now). I went to the actual location of 23 Nanjing West Road. This address is the entrance of the Palace Hotel (now called Peace Hotel South Wing). The Bianchi Chocolate shop was certainly within the hotel itself. I guess Bianchi chocolate was the shop on the right-hand side of the main entrance, nowadays selling horrible fake souvenirs for a lot of money.

The Bianchi chocolate shop does not exist anymore of course, but just finding this piece of the old times was wonderful. I imagine walking to buy my chocolate near the riverside. I am walking those busy streets, full of a mixture of trendy office workers, vendors of all kinds shouting to advertise their products and dockworkers. I get to the Bianchi shop, push the glass door. I look at all the chocolates in the shop, talk to Mr Bianchi about his chocolate, good food, life and other topic before getting my simple piece of chocolate, just like I do nowadays in Visage chocolate shop in Xin Tian Di . After leaving the shop, I open the chocolate and starts eating it. It takes me a few minutes to wake up from my dream, holding my 60 years old chocolate paper in my hands. This old relic is so powerful that I still feel the taste of this chocolate created and eaten many decades ago.

Hotel des Colonies

The French settlement in Shanghai was started in 1884, but it did not grow as fast as the British (then international) next to it. When the international settlement was busy with traders shipping things in and out of China, the French settlement remain a much quieter place, eventually extended to become the residential and garden city of Shanghai.
One of the few prominent buildings of the French settlement, was the "Hotel des colonies", the only hotel of the French settlement for quite a long time. It was located on the "Quai de France", the French part of the Bund, located South from the Bund itself. "Hotel des colonies" is mentioned in "Les Francais de Shanghai" and was clearly an important location both for traders coming to Shanghai and for the community. Some of the traders based in Shanghai even lived there for years.
I found the enclosed postcard in an antic shop in Malacca. It was written in Saigon and sent to Shanghai by the post, carried by ship to Shanghai, another French settlement. More than the picture on the front, it's the address of on the back that caught my attention. The postcard is simply addressed to "Monsieur Millon, Voyageur, Hotel des Colonies, Shanghai". No street, no number only the hotel's name, where the card would wait for the traveler to arrive and collect it from the counter. "Poste restante", i.e. letter sent to a post office and remaining their until the receiver collects it used to be quite a popular mean of sending letter, although it's quite difficult to imagine it today. It's just nice to think about a time when time schedule was so relaxed, that people would just post the letter and wait for months until an answer arrive... what a change from today's email. I was still quite happy to be able to check my email in the old port of Malacca. The modern world also has it's great advantages.

Raclette Cheese party

This all started as a joke. I had met this Quebec guy who tried to convince me that cheese in Quebec could rival European ones. To prove his point, he proposed to bring some raclette cheese next he would be in town. Two month later, our Quebecer came back. I then had to organize a raclette cheese party for him to prove the quality of his cheese. The cheese had to be vacuum sealed to avoid smell and get through Chinese borders… but this was only the beginning. Raclette is a very peculiar cheese dish originating from the French and Swiss Alps and Juras mountains. The cheese is melted and eaten while it’s hot with hot potatoes, various dried meets and cold cuts. To do a proper raclette meal required getting the specific cheese (that we had) and the various needed cold cuts that I ordered from my favorite restaurant. However, the most important element was finding a raclette oven. This device is quite popular in France and Switzerland, but finding it in Shanghai was very problematic. I inquired a number of French friends in the restaurant business, but nobody had one. Missing two people to complete the table and I invited a Swiss friend, assuming that he may have access to one. The cheese party was on Sunday lunch. Thursday arrived with still no trace of the needed oven, when suddenly I received a text message from him saying “I will have a raclette oven tomorrow”. I was so relieved that the party could take place… until I received the next message saying “The oven is broken and cannot be used. I should get another one tomorrow.” The whole destiny of my cheese party was hanging on my friend’s plan B. Fortunately the second oven worked out fine. Our lunch on Sunday was really special, as we all had been waiting for it. Eating this dish is truly unusual in Shanghai and we all enjoyed it tremendously. It brought to all of us memories of sky holidays, mountains and snow making us really feel like back in Europe for a moment. This successful lunch required the cooperation of a French bringing Italian cold cuts, a Quebecer bringing cheese all the way from his home land and a Swiss who searched for this special device found only in far away countries. This very exotic experience was shared by another French, a Chinese and a Mongolian friend (who all happened to like cheese very much). This mix of competences and experience was a truly Shanghai story, people and cultures from all around the world mixing in this very special place that Shanghai used to be and is becoming again. Having raclette in Shanghai makes it a little bit more become a World city.

Freezing Shanghai

Winter has fully come to Shanghai. I escaped to the earliest cold wave in late December by flying to a sunnier destination, but holidays are now finished... and the winter has come back. Temperatures during the day are about 5C, but it's below 0C during the night. This would be no problem in anywhere else apart from China, as people have heating... but in Shanghai it's a real pain.
Shanghai old houses used to have fireplaces at least the villas and they were great to heat up those big houses and keep them warm just like their sisters in Europe and USA. Uinfortunately today's Shanghai is different. Sometimes after the establishment of the People's Republic of China, it seems that Chairman Mao decided that people in South China do not need heating. I could imagine that people were supposed to be warmed up by belief in communist ideology... or that all this wood and coal was better used for the development of heavy industry... or something like that. All fireplaces inside houses were filled up with concrete and pipes were broken down (like picture on the left). I also heard that the radiators were melted down to use the metal they were made of. In any case, it was probably a fast track way to reduce energy costs.
The whole issue is about defining what South China is. The actual dividing line is a river, that runs north of Shanghai making the city and the surrounding provinces part of the South... I can tell you that it is cold here during winter. As a consequence, people use air conditionners to heat up rooms. If airconditionners are fine for a slightly chilly climate... they are clearly unsufficient for Shanghai's climate. People push them to the maximum to get a mere 18-20C in rooms. The sales of electric heaters soars along with comsumption of electricity. Because of the real bad efficiency of electric heating and the lack of insulation of houses, a lot of energy is wasted... contributing to more pollution... Shanghai in winter is somewhat less of a world city.