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Jeffrey Tao's Travel Impressions
Shanghai's Allure
Shanghai was going to be the last stop of a trip that had already taken us to Hong Kong and Beijing. In Hong Kong it had been delightful to explore the verdant hills of Lantau Island in balmy temperatures of 60 to 70 degrees Fahrenheit in late December. But Beijing brought us back to reality with below freezing temperatures, a biting wind, and eventually two days of gently falling snow that turned the regal ancient capital into a winter wonderland. It was still snowing on the morning of our departure, and our hearts sank when, sitting in our seats on a full flight destined for Shanghai, we were told over the microphone that the plane would have to wait on the tarmac until clearance could be given for take-off - and no hint was given as to when that might be. After an anxious and silent half-hour, my wife and I were relieved to hear the announcement that we were taking off and began to look forward to our visit to the vast metropolis on China’s east coast.
Xujiahui
On arrival, claiming our luggage and getting a taxi seemed almost effortless at the new and shiny Pudong Airport. The drive into central Shanghai took over an hour, but we simply relaxed and enjoyed the green rural landscape that made us feel as if we were in a different country again. We were very lucky to have been lent an apartment this time by a New York-based friend of mine, and it was located in Xujiahui, on the western border of what used to be the French Concession. Our temporary home in Shanghai was a service apartment with 24-hour security and linen and laundry service, very much in the tradition of similar apartments that proliferated in Shanghai in the Twenties and Thirties, when many expatriates from Europe and America lived in this great center of business and entertainment. The difference is that, nowadays, buildings like this also count among their residents many Overseas Chinese and local professionals. Being on the 12th floor, we were thrilled to get a commanding view from our living room of the busy intersection below us, with an endless stream of cars and bicycles and bright lights and neon signs illuminating the sky late into the night. We knew then that we had arrived in Shanghai. The neighborhood is an interesting mixture of shopping malls, high rise apartment buildings like our own, and little streets with cosy coffee shops and intimate family-run restaurants and boutiques. It actually reminded me of Roppongi in Tokyo. On tree-lined Tian Ping Lu we savored freshly-brewed Colombian coffee and chatted with pleasant young people who seemed to be running the cafe. At a street-corner nearby we sampled such traditional Shanghai fare as scallion cakes and pan-fried pork dumplings. We only had five or six days here, and we had relatives to visit and many places of interest to see. But we liked this neighborhood so much that we would sometimes stay close to home in the morning and lunch here at one of the many fine but informal eateries, serving such mouth-watering and inventive dishes as fresh shrimps sauteed in Dragon Well tea or succulent sliced beef cooked over smooth pebbles.
The Bund
We decided to spend a morning doing a walking tour of the Bund, part of what used to be called the International Settlement, which resulted from the union of the former British and American Settlements in 1863. The Bund was all the way across the other side of the city, on the waterfront of the Huangpu River, so we took the metro. It was clean, quiet, well-signposted, and a pleasure to use. It was not rush hour by any means, but it did get quite crowded now and again - hardly surprising in this teeming city of 11 million. Plans have been drawn up to add many more metro routes to the current two.
We got off at Henan Zhonglu stop, and walked east along Nanjing Donglu toward the Bund, part of the way being a pedestrian area closed to traffic. Eventually we found ourselves almost at the Bund, at the intersection of Nanjing Donglu and Zhongshan Donglu, with the famed Cathay Hotel (built 1929, now called Peace Hotel) on our left and the older Palace Hotel (built 1906, now the southern annex of the Peace Hotel) across the street on our right. Noel Coward wrote “Private Lives” during a stay at the Cathay not long after it had opened, and the Palace is the oldest building on the Bund. Hotels such as these, redolent with history and glamour, are institutions that go on for ever: their names may change, so may their managements, but they have such character and distinction that they have been woven permanently into the rich tapestry of Shanghai.
Holding our 7-year-old daughter by the hand, we sauntered up and down the esplanade of the Bund, basking in the warmth of the winter sun, and viewing avidly the spectacular array of buildings. At the northern end, on the banks of Suzhou Creek, across from Huangpu Park, there is a fine and interesting cluster of them: Shanghai Mansions, now a hotel, built in the 30's as a luxury apartment building called Broadway Mansions; the Pujiang Hotel, formerly the famed Astor House, dating back to 1860 as the first hotel in Shanghai and reconstructed in 1910; the Russian Consulate, looking very elegant and spruced up, the only consulate occupying its original premises. Further south along the Bund, next to the Peace Hotel, is the Bank of China building constructed in 1937 and commissioned by H.H.Kung, Chiang Kai-shek’s Minister of Finance and brother-in-law.
Shanghai Mansions (left) and Russian Consulate (right)
Further down still are more symbols of British power and dominance: the Customs House, built 1925, with its distinctive clock tower, and the imposing, massive, former Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank Building (1923), the second biggest bank building in the world at the time - then, the bank was guided by its central purpose, which was, in its own words, to “spare no expense, but dominate the Bund.” After 1949 and the establishment of Communist rule, the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank withdrew from Shanghai, but a few years ago it sought to return to its original premises and resume operations. This time around, the price of a prestigious presence on the Bund was considered prohibitive, and, after protracted negotiations, the erstwhile invincible bank had to be content with a site in Pudong.
Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank (left) and Customs House (right), dwarfed by modern building with futuristic look.
We walked until we were foot-sore and chilly from the river breeze, and more than a little hungry, so we headed for the Chinese restaurant on the 8th floor of the Peace Hotel. This was a ritual that we observed during practically every visit to Shanghai - get a table by the window and watch the hustle and bustle of the river traffic on the Huangpu. And this we did - feasting on delicious roast goose, sauteed shrimps, braised bean- curd with crab meat and pan-fried noodles as we looked across at the futuristic modern architecture of Pudong ( meaning east of the Huangpu river ) and down at the myriad of cruise ships, barges carrying timber and sand, and other river-craft plying their route. As my daughter munched on her favorite noodles, (in Beijing she imperiously rejected the noodles she was served at a famous noodle shop because they were too wide) I reminisced about a meal we had here many years ago when we sampled steamed fresh shad in the month of May.
The former American Club with its Georgian facade
The Former French Concession
When Shanghainese ( as I understand it, the term “Shanghailanders “ that was coined by foreigners here, referred only to themselves, and generally did not include the Chinese ) of my parents’ generation speak of the French Concession these days, they are referring less to a defined geographical area than to a state of mind and a way of life. After victory was declared over the Japanese in 1945, the Allied Powers abrogated all the international jurisdictions and foreign extraterritorial privileges in Shanghai, effectively ending the city’s semi-colonial status, and closing a painful and humiliating chapter of its modern history. But the tree-lined avenues and elegant mansions have survived, and in recent years there has been a resurgence of nostalgia for the gracious living and cosmopolitan atmosphere that were hallmarks of this area during the prewar period. In fact, even today, the French Concession is still considered one of the preeminent areas for fine cuisine, attractive coffee shops, sophisticated entertainment and an active nightlife.
Once again we tried to combine gastronomic experiences with our exploration of this part of Shanghai. We had read about a nice family-run restaurant called Bai’s (Bai Jia Can Shi ) located on a quiet lane near Wanping Lu which itself is a side street off Hengshan Lu, at the western end of the French Concession. Armed with several maps, we started looking for this off-the-beaten-track little eatery. After a lot of walking and stopping to ask for directions we eventually did find it, a tiny, immaculate place with no more than 5 or 6 small tables. We were rewarded with a simple and appetizing lunch which included three dishes, plenty of local beer, and rice dumplings filled with sweet sesame paste for dessert. The bill came to the equivalent of $13 and the service had the warmth and hospitality of a Shanghai home. After lunch we looked around the neighborhood, and soon found the Hengshan Hotel, known as Picardie Apartments in the 30's. One could still see traces of the former grandeur of the Western-style building just looking at the exterior, but the inside appeared to be dingy, musty and poorly-lit, lacking the sumptuous charm of the Peace Hotel. Hengshan Lu, on the other hand, has retained a certain understated gracefulness, and nearby we spotted a restaurant housed in a handsome mansion with a garden around it called Wuxing Garden, which must be lovely in the spring or summer.
Another restaurant we tried was called Henry’s, so named because it is located at Xinle Lu, formerly Rue Paul Henry. The decor here harks back to 30's Shanghai, and the staff is young and nattily dressed in blue denim shirts. The food is Shanghainese, with interesting dishes such as whole wild duck steamed in lotus leaf, and also traditional ones like Shi Zi Tou ( soft, moist meatballs called Lion’s Heads because of their shape ) and Xiao Long Bao, which are pork or crabmeat dumplings steamed to perfection in bamboo baskets. In addition to the usual beverages like beer and mineral water, there is also a wine list. The clientele seems to consist of fairly fashionable and sophisticated young professionals.
A short walk from Henry’s, on a little side-street, is the Russian Orthodox Mission Church. Established in 1931, it was the center for religious worship for Shanghai’s Russian refugees, the great majority of whom settled in the French Concession, where rents were cheaper than in the International Settlement. After the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, during the 20's and 30's, successive waves of White Russians made their way under miserable conditions across Russia and Siberia. Some reached the Manchurian city of Harbin in China’s far north-east, and settled there, while others came as far south as Shanghai and made this part of the city their home. According to a Russian-speaking Chinese friend of mine, now in his eighties, some of the Russian men, destitute upon arrival, knew French, and managed to find employment as minor functionaries or clerks in the Concession’s bureaucracy, but the young Russian women, who were often quite beautiful, became much sought after as dance hostesses and cabaret performers in the many ballrooms and nightclubs of this avowedly hedonistic city. A few Russians rose to great heights of entrepreneurial success - the luxurious and renowned Siberian Fur Company on Bubbling Well Road (now Nanjing Xilu ) was founded by Russians in 1930.
The Cercle Sportif Francais ( French Club ) on Rue Cardinal Mercier was said to be an enormously popular club in its heyday, since it was considered more relaxed and lively than the Shanghai Club (which was British) on the Bund. We get a glimpse of what it must have been like in those days also from All About Shanghai, A Standard Guidebook, 1934 , “ There is a roof garden for dancing in the Summer, and in the Winter there are usually Sunday afternoon tea dances in the ballroom on the first floor. “ Today it is part of the Garden Hotel of the Japanese luxury chain Okura and the road is now called Maoming Nanlu. The Art Deco lobby has been beautifully restored, with its carved marble pillars and staircases and brass railings wrought in ornate motifs, not to mention the stylish and elegant light fixtures. We admired the stately and altogether appealing exterior - the symmetry of the whole structure, the Greek columns and pediments, and the grand French windows that open onto spacious balconies.
Former French Club, now Garden Hotel
Just across the street from the French Club is the illustrious Jinjiang Hotel, formerly Cathay Mansions, built in 1929 in the Georgian style, and still elegant with its red brick and bay windows. It had the distinction of hosting Richard Nixon during his historic visit to China in 1972 and the groundbreaking Shanghai Communique was signed here by Nixon and Zhou En Lai. The Jinjiang continues to rank as one of the leading Chinese-managed hotels in the city and it boasts in its main building an upscale, open- round-the-clock restaurant called Lao Ye Shanghai, meaning, literally, “Old Shanghai by Night.”
We walked along the major thoroughfare of the French Concession, Huai Hai Lu or Avenue Joffre. There was such a profusion of restaurants, fashionable department stores, chic boutiques and 24-hour pharmacies that one wondered whether one was in New York, Paris or Shanghai. Yandang Lu, with which it intersects, is a charming street closed to motor traffic, perfect for a drink and a brief respite. There has obviously been a lot of construction and development, but many lovely old buildings have been preserved. In the more residential section of Huai Hai, and along its side streets, we would occasionally see the decorated facade of a prewar apartment block standing in a walled compound, amid some trees, and would be intrigued by what one might find behind the wall. It was in these very same neighborhoods that the wily and ruthless Du Yue Sheng, the city’s underworld boss during the 30's, might have been driven around in his polished limousine, flanked by bodyguards clutching machine guns.
The Shanghai Museum
No stay in Shanghai would be complete without a visit to the Shanghai Museum in People’s Square. The museum was originally founded in 1952 and housed in a drab former bank building. I still remember visiting it in the winter of 1977, how drafty I found it, and how uninspiring the presentation of the objects seemed to be. The new Shanghai Museum, in a beautiful building, opened in 1996 at its present site. This well-run, attractive, and world-class museum has put Shanghai on the map as a major center of Chinese art and culture. Under the dynamic stewardship of its director, Ma Cheng Yuan, the museum has been able not only to attract financial support, but also to obtain generous donations of important Chinese works of art from private collectors (many of whom of Shanghainese background) in the United States, China, and especially, Hong Kong. In fact, 10 of the 14 galleries of the museum are named after Hong Kong donors - T.T. Tsui, the Kadoories, Joseph Hotung and Run Run Shaw, to mention but a few. The museum is, in a very real sense, a cultural project in which lovers of Chinese art from all over the world can participate with pride and affection, either as supporters or simply as admirers. When we were last in Shanghai in 1997, which was only a year after the museum had been inaugurated, we spent a full half-day here, and found the experience both highly instructive and satisfying. It was a pleasure to return for a repeat visit.
We lingered in the Ancient Chinese Bronzes Gallery. The sheer variety of the pieces, some dating back to the Shang Dynasty (1700 B.C.- 1100 B.C.) and earlier, was astonishing. There were round and square utensils used for cooking and serving meats at banquets, wine vessels in the shape of birds and animals, and the more familiar “ding” or three-legged food container, a traditional symbol of hearth and home and the continuity of feudal life. One of the highlights of the gallery was a full set of bronze bells of varying sizes used in an orchestra, and visitors can hear a recorded tape of the clear, crisp tones of the bells as they marvel at the beauty of the pieces, with their fine patina and evocative carvings. The Ming and Qing Furniture Gallery had whole rooms furnished in a manner in keeping with an elegant home of a particular period, say, a Ming Dynasty den complete with a desk, chairs, latticed windows, richly-carved doors, and scholar’s objects such as brush-pots and ink-stones. Different kinds of hard and soft woods most commonly used in furniture such as huanghuali, zitan, jumu and nanmu, were also exhibited, showing the variety of their colors and grains. Other equally spectacular exhibits can be seen at the Ancient Chinese Ceramics Gallery, the Chinese Painting Gallery and the Calligraphy Gallery. But we were all captivated by the Minority Nationalities Gallery, displaying the clothing, crafts, jewelry and lifestyles of not just major ethnic groups such as the Uyghurs and the Tibetans, but also the less well-known but numerous minorities in Yunnan, Guangxi and Guizhou provinces in the southwest, e.g., the Miaos, the Bais, the Dais, the Yis and the Zhuangs. Many years ago we had seen a similar exhibit at the Cultural Palace of the Nationalities ( Minzu Wenhua Gong) in Beijing, but the Shanghai Museum’s version was superior in both content and presentation, which included a clear and useful map laying out the distribution of the minority nationalities throughout the whole country. One rather helpful device in all of the galleries were lights that would brighten as one moved closer to the showcases and dim as one moved away - so as to avoid the exhibits being constantly exposed to the harmful effects of strong lighting.
Of course, to wind up an absorbing museum visit like this one, we could think of nothing more civilized than to retire to the quietly elegant third-floor tearoom, with its polished wood tables and stools, and relax over thirst-quenching chrysanthemum or jasmine tea, or, for $3.25, rich, strong Brazilian coffee!
Planned metamorphosis
There is no doubt that by the end of our short stay we regretted not having seen certain parts or aspects of this large and truly multi-faceted city. We had hoped to have time to revisit the Old Chinese City. We had chanced upon a wonderful bookstore inside a downtown metro station and would have loved to tarry longer and browse. We would have liked to explore Hongkou, formerly a Japanese stronghold, and to see the house where the illustrious writer Lu Xun lived before his death in 1936. In fact, we read that Hongkou is now an up-and-coming district, where a Hong Kong-based development group has launched a large construction project which will result in some sort of self-contained community housed in loft-style residential units. These lofts are expected to attract business executives, artists and the young and affluent in general.
According to an article we read before departing, the city authorities had just unveiled, in January 2001, an ambitious 20-year plan for Shanghai’s development that would create a huge megalopolis with many sub-cities each with its own commercial and entertainment complex and residential area, and interlinked by an enormous network of highways, metro lines and light rail routes. The Huangpu would become more of an “aesthetic asset” than a “commercial asset”, and the plan may involve banishing some of the rusted and rickety vessels that currently sail the river to a new port on the eastern shore of Pudong, presumably not too far from where the international airport is now located. We are all hoping and praying that in this process, that Shanghai ethos, which encompasses so many cultural currents and diverse facets, will not be replaced by a new, dull uniformity. Shanghai’s allure lies precisely in being an indefinable amalgam of East and West, tradition and modernity, fantasy and reality. Thus far, a careful balance has been struck and “fusion” seems to be something that the Shanghainese do quite well. But when far-reaching plans have been drawn up whose implementation will probably have its own inexorable momentum, one begins to be concerned that the changes forged, however well-intentioned, might one day imperil or render less authentic the city’s unique and incomparable legacy. I, for one, will be quite happy to go on looking at the ships that are now sailing up and down the Huangpu.
Where to Eat
Bai’s Restaurant House 12, Lane 189, Wan Ping Rd ( near Hengshan Hotel ) Tel : 64376916 Traditional home-cooked Shanghai dishes. Very inexpensive.
Green Willow Village 763 Nanjing Xilu Tel: 6253-8427 Established 1930's - almost an institution, with elegant decor. Recommended dishes: cold smoked fish, sauteed shrimps, aromatic crispy duck.
Henry’s 8 Xin Le Lu ( near Russian Orthodox Church) Tel: 54033448 Recommended dishes: wild duck steamed in lotus leaf; steamed crabmeat dumplings.
Lao Ye Shanghai (“Old Shanghai by Night”) Ground Floor, North (main) Building, Jinjiang Hotel, 59 Maoming Nanlu Tel: 62582582 Upmarket. Open 24 hours.
Liang Xiao Restaurant ( means “ Perfect Evening “ ) 312-314 Tian Ping Lu, Xujiahui Tel.: 64079733, 64078822 Recommended dishes: fresh shrimps in Dragon Well tea; beef cooked on smooth pebbles.
Peace Hotel’s Chinese Restaurant 8th Floor, Peace Hotel or Heping Fandian 20 Nanjing Donglu ( The Bund ) Tel: 63216888 Fabulous view of the Huangpu River and Pudong. Recommended dishes: cold sliced goose in soya sauce; braised bean-curd with crabmeat.
Yong He A chain of self-service eateries found all over the city specializing in noodles, dumplings and desserts. Inexpensive and convenient. There’s one on Fuzhou Lu, just behind the Bund.
Yuanyuan Restaurant 550 Wanping Nanlu, Xujiahui Tel: 64381015 Informal family-run restaurant with excellent service. Shanghai food. Very popular.
Author: Jeffrey Tao |
Moreover,
the Peace Hotel, as is the case with many fine old hotels in the city, has
painstakingly preserved its own architectural integrity, with the Art Deco
lights in its lobby, crystal chandeliers and the polished marble floors (see
left). In this, the support of the city
government has been unstinting. A large
number of the over 30 buildings on the Bund dating back to the first half of
the 20th century have been designated “ superior modern architecture
“ under the protection of the city. It
was also interesting to note that the building which houses the Peace Hotel is
now again called “Sassoon House” by the government, since it was built by
Victor Sassoon, a leading British entrepreneur of the period, and what is now
the Foreign Trade Building, a little further north on the Bund, is called
“Jardine House”, as it was once the premises of the British firm Jardine &
Matheson, notorious for its involvement in the 19th century opium
trade. This seemed to be a departure -
in the not too distant past, such references to foreigners associated with a
bitter period of China’s relations with the West would have been accompanied by
some mention of their role as exploiters and agents of European imperialism. 
After
lunch we took a brief stroll behind the Peace Hotel, on Fuzhou Lu, which was
once the fabled center of social life and entertainment for the Chinese before
the War. A guidebook published in 1934,
All About Shanghai, gives an evocative description of it, “one enters
the very picturesque Chinese section with its gaily decorated, banner-dressed
tea houses, restaurants and hotels.
Several leading Chinese theatres are in the neighbourhood.” But the most visible monuments to the past
around Fuzhou Lu still seem to be the buildings built by foreigners for
foreigners. The Metropole Hotel and
Hamilton House are semicircular-shaped buildings that face each other here. The former used to be a top class hotel in
the 30's and still functions as a much less grand one today. On 209 Fuzhou Road stands the former
American Club, built in the Georgian style, and a center of American life in
its heyday (see picture on left). 
Urban
renewal continues apace. Instead of
carrying out wholesale demolition, traditional dwellings are being modernized
and renovated so that 100-year-old row houses (often known as “shikumen” or
“stone gate” houses – see left) that never had proper indoor plumbing and
toilets will possess these modern amenities, leaving intact the integrity and
character of the original structures - this is as much the result of outside
investment and development as government edict. The municipal government does take conservation very seriously -
the apartment building where my parents used to live during the 40's in the
Jingan residential area has been earmarked for preservation and will hopefully
never be torn down (my uncle and aunt still live in one room of that
apartment).