Rakesh was persuaded to come with me and participate in a walking tour of Old Town Shanghai, conducted by Les Flaneurs de Shanghai. Yes, we felt very suave and debonair indeed. Old Town Shanghai is located on the Puxi side, south of the famous Bund area, close to the Huangpu River.
We all gathered at the Waterhouse Hotel for coffee and a pre-walk talk, which was very informative. The Waterhouse Hotel is so hip it hurts. It's a former 1930's warehouse in the South Bund neighbourhood that has been turned into a 19-room boutique hotel. The Waterhouse made Conde Nast's Hot List for 2011. Impressive. I'll have to go back for lunch sometime. I digress. Let's get on with the walking tour.
An auspicious start
I was disappointed there was no underwear in sight, like there usually is.
The view improved.
Our first stop was the Dongjiadu Church (St. Xavier Cathedral).
I will now plagiarize shamelessly from the fabulous pamphlet prepared by Les Flaneurs de Shanghai. They truly did an excellent job with this brochure-it was packed with tidbits of information and it had a terrific map on the back.
The Catholic Church was built by French missionaries in 1853. It became the center of the Christian community on the Shanghai waterfront. Most of the neighborhood around the church was razed in 2010.
Exterior
Interior (Obviously, Elizabeth!)
I'm not sure if you can make this out, but the low building with the grey roof is the Marine Merchants Hall, one of the oldest structures in Shanghai. It was a guild hall, one of many that existed in Shanghai and now gone, victims of urban development.
Guess whose likeness?
Once again, I turn to the brochure for information on this trace of the Cultural Revolution.
The decade of red terror left scars throughout the city:scrubbed lane names, faded slogans on doorways, Mao portraits under the peeling paint and broken and defaced bas-reliefs. At times, residents damaged their own houses to protect the interiors from the violence of the Red Guards.
On to something more pleasant, namely Catalpa Garden,
just inside the formerly walled Old Town where only the Chinese lived.
The foreigners had their own concessions, remember?
From a website written by the woman who was our guide:
At the turn of the twentieth century, Shanghai’s celebrated painter, industrialist and Japanophile Wang Yiting purchased the lot and renamed it Catalpa Garden, in celebration of the ancient catalpa tree that had stood on the property since the Ming dynasty. Wang Yiting graced the compound with an eccentric new mansion combining Italian shutters, gothic windows and Greek colonnades. The grounds surrounding the house became a dreamscape of whorled pavilions and surrealist rock gardens.
The red star stands as reminder of Catalpa Garden's storied past.
The downfall
But like so much of historic Shanghai, the war with the Japanese changed everything. Imperial soldiers occupied the house and destroyed Wang’s artwork. Wang retired to Hong Kong and threw himself into Buddhist meditation.
Liberation brought
a horde of proletarian occupants. Wang’s mansion grew two stories taller with a haphazard penthouse of corrugated tin. The gracious columned veranda was walled with sheet-rock, squeezing in two more families. With aggressive petulance, red guards destroyed the garden, replacing it with a crude metal workshop.
Today, as you walk by, you’ll see a red revolutionary star of pig iron on a rusted gate just where the catalpa tree stood, illuminated by acetylene torches, glinting under the balcony of one of the Old City’s storied mansions.
Views from the roof of Catalpa Garden
The long building facing us is where Wang's Buddhist wife lived.
She would retreat to that home when life at Catalpa Garden became too "worldly".
This Taoist symbol, dragons, I think, decorated a formerly opulent residence. Other symbols are peaches, bats, deer, fans and lotuses. They are meant to bring health, longevity, prosperity and power.
The number spray painted above the ornament is a cellphone number for someone advertising a service.You see them all over Shanghai. It does detract from the beautiful decoration.
Stone sign outside a landmark house
Yes, this is the famous building. Hard to believe, I know.
Why is it famous? Good question. Here's the answer, courtesy of the tour brochure:
Xu Guangqi(1562-1633) was a mathematician, agronomist and Shanghai's most famous Catholic. Xu's ...birthplace at Qiaojia Lu is inhabited by workers, like Xu's family four centuries ago.
It's a shame this heritage building doesn't receive more care and recognition. Sadly, we saw another residence in a worse state of neglect.
This fellow pictured below might have had something to do with that.
Down a narrow lane, behind an extremely unassuming wall,
we entered the first courtyard of Shuyinlou,
Shanghai's oldest residence.
It was originally built as a private library in 1763. Now that's what I call old!
An ornate outdoor gate
Detail from the courtyard wall
Another detail
So beautiful!
As the brochure stated,
"Shuyinlou is magnificent but decaying".
I see what they mean.
Moving inside...
Interior carved beam
Former splendour
Such a waste. I would have loved to see this place in its glory days.
Another interior courtyard
The original wall of the estate which was higher than the Old City wall.
Ornament with old style characters
The current owner, who has lived here all her 82 years, and a younger relative. The older lady has family in Canada she visits every year. Her English was far better than my Mandarin.
She comes from a nice family that is in "in conflict with the local government [and that] has prevented coordinated effort to repair the estate." I hope they sort it out sooner rather than later.
This tour had to be one of the most interesting I have gone on. I was truly impressed by the depth of knowledge of our guide and the research she shared with us. We didn't even get to some of the other sights, like the Temple of Confucius. I will definitely sign up for more walks with Les Flaneurs de Shanghai. There is still so much to see in this city and that's a good thing.
