Walking Tour - French Concession (Again)

On November 8, several of us went on another walking tour. This one was again in the French Concession area. The focus was the "leafy streets" and focused on the residential living of the lilongs. These were apartments and villas that were built between 1915 and the 1930's. Many were originally home to expatriates, but most now house 5 to 10 times as many families as the homes were originally designed to hold. This tour included, besides myself. Kathy Miller, Kathy Kane, Sherie Chen, and Karen Goh. We started from the Old China Hand Reading Room, on Shaoxing Lu. Several of us had been there before, some to hear Tess Johnson speak, a very knowledgeable American who has lived here for 15 years. Actually she co-authored the book we have been using to guide us on these tours. The descriptions I am including here come from the text of that book.

The French Concession was established in the 1840's in a small area between Yan'an (originally a creek, but now an elevated road!) and the Bund and the old Chinese walled city (Nanshi). But by 1914 it had expanded to its current size of around 600 acres. The architecture we saw on this walk reflected the need for rich mansions for the fortunate and high-density lilongs for the Chinese. Many Chinese revolutionaries, Communists, and intellectuals made this concession area their home. In 1949, all foreign-owned real estate became state property. While the lilongs are still in use as residential properties, the large mansions, estates, and villas have become restaurants, hotels, or museums. Many of the larger villas, which used to house one family, now may house 8 families!

The first lilong was the Cite' Bourgogne. This is an example of shikumen lilong, built in the 1930's. It has one of the grandest gates in Shanghai. There are 78 homes in this area, and right now, they are replacing all of the drains and water to the individual buildings. It is odd to see renovations on building that frankly look like they should be torn down! It was quite the bustle inside though. Many women were out with the daily food they had probably purchased that morning, cleaning fish and vegetables out front of their homes. There was a small wet market within the gates, so you didn't have to go far for you fresh food. The picture on the right is of a cute Chinese couple wondering why 5 westerners were wandering through their apartment area. Many smiles and "Ni Hao"'s were exchanged. That is what I love about China!

The picture here on the left, from the Joffre Terrace, shows an alley inside the lilong. This lilong is known as a garden lilong, built in the 1920's. There are 200 houses in this with a complex hierarchy of lanes. You can see the small window, known as a Ting zi jian, in the stairwell that is extending out from the main building. In hard times, this "apartment" was rented to writers and artists as they could not afford the rent of a larger space. The broad lanes of this lilong are very wide and almost spacious. Not at all like the other lilongs. And it is neat that while the insides of these apartments are dark and seemingly uninhabitable, they The small place on the right here is the local "Senior Center". All of you AARP members out there ought to feel good about the resources available to you. Here they look like they use the room for storing bags of rice! Not a lot of other activity going on here today!

Traffic is still an issue no matter where you are in Shanghai. The picture here on the right is of the bike and scooter traffic at a main intersection in the area we were walking. There are just so many people living and commuting from place to place. Oh, and the picture on the right was just for fun. The sign on one of the buildings reads "Urban Vegetable Garden". Marketing is not an art form here in China!

After looking at the lilong's, we moved on to private villa's that have been converted into apartments. Some of the homes are really beautiful and the gardens are still very attractive. We also stopped briefly at the former home of Dr. Sun Yat Sen. We didn't pay the 20 RMB to get in this time, we will have to wait until another day to tour inside. There was a small textile museum with some interesting textiles. But no one bought anything.

Our final stop was at the site of what is now the Ruijin hotel. This was originally the home of the British Moriss family, owners of the "North China Daily News". There are many building making up this compound, many which now contain the hotel itself, restaurants, and stores. It is a beautiful oasis in a very busy area. We wandered around the gardens and I had a good opportunity for the only good "Chinglish" signage. In a small lane between buildings, we saw the sign to the left which was a "Boiler Important Area". It was just a door which I will assume housed a large boiler. We at lunch at Face, which has two restaurants and a bar contained within in it. The picture on the right is a view from our table at the Thai restaurant. Very quiet and luxurious. A great way to finish a nice walk!