Shanghai: June 4: French Concession (Part 1)

On Thursday, June 4, 2009, I began exploring the formerly French Concession. The concession had little construction, fresher air, and less haze in general than the rest of Shanghai. Though I had a lazy day and didn't see much of it, I already concluded and wrote in my notes that "I think the French Concession is the nicest part of Shanghai, and I don't expect this impression to change." Indeed, at the end of the trip, I continue to stand by my impression.

I took these pictures this day.

I had a slow morning, staying home after breakfast until nearly lunchtime. I ate a good lunch at a joint near our apartment, then took the metro and began my tour.

I first explored Xintiandi. It's a three-square block area designed and built to look old and mimic the way people think buildings previously looked in China. But, being newly built, everything has modern facilities and the whole complex is filled with high-end shops and restaurants and is designed for walking, seeing, and being seen. This area feels more like Singapore than the rest of Shanghai: it's better maintained, newer, cleaner, and with more foliage.

In Xintiandi, I explored the Shikumen Open House Museum. Shikumen are a style of stone house found in China, often found along lilong/longtangs. The museum is a furnished and decorated shikumen. As I looked around, I found a tingzijian room: a wedge-shaped room on the landing between the first and second floors. Neat. I also saw really high v-shaped ceilings on the second floor. Finally, I appreciated the interior light-well/skylight (tianjing).

Also in Xintiandi, I visited the Site of the First National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party. (Incidentally, the first Congress was in 1921, not, say, 1949.) The museum covered the founding of the CCP and the history of the building. The first sentence one sees upon entering the museum is fervent:

"Since the British invaders launched the opium war in 1840, the Western capitalist powers came one after another to China, and China was thus reduced gradually to a semi-colonial and semi-feudal state."

However, aside from that sentence, the museum was generally a low-passion display of artifacts from attempted revolutions in the 19th century, and of political writings through the start of communism.

I also stuck my head in the Xintiandi outpost of the Postal Museum.

From Xintiandi, I wound my way through the neighborhood to the shady, pleasant Fuxing Park. Many people were doing tai chi in Fuxing Park: standing still as a statue, rocking on one's heels, rotating one's head, jiggling one's body like a snake slithering, or walking backwards. By the way, often, when looking out our apartment window early in the morning, we'd see women doing the walking-backward form of tai chi.

From Fuxing Park, I wandered through more of the French Concession, passing various nice areas as well as old houses in various stages of restoration, then headed home.