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.