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.