In a relatively new city like Shanghai, even a 131-year old tablet can be considered ancient history. Hailing from the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), a mysterious stone tablet was dug up on Tiantong Road in Zhabei District on March 1st. more ›

Our curiosity had been piqued when we first saw news of Jimmy's Kitchen, one of Shanghai's first Western restaurants, coming back to the city after over 60 years away. When they asked us if we'd like to preview their menu ahead of the April 28 grand opening, we jumped at the chance. This is the new Shanghai Jimmy's, which like the new Shanghai, now caters to expense accounts rather than sailor's wages. more ›

Sorry about the delay in getting out the latest part of this series. In case you'd forgotten (and rightfully so), we've been searching through a list of 155 unprotected heritage sites in Shanghai. Here is Part I (Baoshan and Hongkou) Part II (Huangpu, Zhabei and Putuo) and Part III (Luwan and Jiading). Part IV is about Minhang and Yangpu. more ›

One of the more interesting tidbits to fall into our laps this morning was the news that Jimmy's Kitchen, a pre-revolution relic that got started in Shanghai 87 years ago and expanded into Hong Kong (where it still seems to garner decent reviews), is now heading full circle back here. Its opening, sometime in the next two weeks, will put a halt to its 63 year hiatus from the city. more ›

Part III of an ongoing series taking a closer look at all of Shanghai's 155 "important heritage sites" that are currently unprotected. Here are the locations in Luwan (French Concession!) and Jiading Districts - which housed the creator of the Chinese alphabet (bopomofo!), the poor discarded second wife of Chiang Kai-shek, and China's best art forger. more ›

Here's Part II of my attempt to take a closer look at all of Shanghai's 155 "important heritage sites" that are currently unprotected. Here are the houses and locations in Huangpu, Zhabei and Putuo districts which include amongst them the first homes of Shanghai's most notorious gangsters, a gorgeous villa of the founder of China's largest pre-revolution English-language newspaper and the mill where a protest leader was killed, sparking China's May 30th anti-foreign movement! more ›

Yesterday, Shanghai Daily reported that there were 155 historically significant homes in the city that are currently unprotected. These houses were previously used by Shanghai's most influential politicians, industrial tycoons, scholars and such, but are now in a dilapidated state (though, luckily, not yet torn down). Interestingly, many Chinese newspapers printed out exactly which 155 homes these were, so I thought I'd document them. more ›

We've reported numerous times on the sad state of architectural preservation here in Shanghai, but we will probably never get as deep as Shanghai history buff Paul French. French has now taken the time to compile a list of the worst losses of 2010 (there were a LOT of them) and it's well worth a read. more ›

As far as demolition, construction, and restoration projects go, China tends to top the list for sad and wasteful. Adam Minter over at Shanghai Scrap has been chronicling yet another victim in Shanghai's ever continuing demolition of its history. This time it's a 135-year-old Carmelite Convent in Xujiahui. But the bizarre twist here is that instead of high rises or shopping complexes, they've instead replaced the convent with... the convent, only one fifth smaller. more ›

Many of you more avid Shanghaiist readers already know my thoughts on Sinan Mansions, the high-end hotel and restaurant location that is unfortunately located on a street that's historically dear to me. Now that Expo is almost ending, the demolition of my grandmother's house is drawing ever closer. This photo, by Sue Anne Tay, is a striking example of the ephemeral mingling of the old-old with the new-old. more ›

To be honest, I've resisted writing about the Sinan Mansions development because it's a bittersweet area for me. On one hand, it contains a piece of history really dear to my family that's about to be torn down and redeveloped into a bastion of ostentatious Chinese wealth. On the other hand, I do like fine dining and fancy cocktails - both of which will be in abundance there - and what else were they going to do with it? more ›

Jews have had an extraordinarily close relationship with the port of Shanghai since before the second World War (and an even closer relationship during). But while their forebears came here to "survive... Now they come here to prosper," says Rabbi Shalom Greenberg in a great piece on The Atlantic about keeping the faith in this city. more ›

• After the powdered milk scare not too long back, we looked at why mothers in Shanghai are turning to the teat. Looks like ‘breast is best’ after all!
• We were sooo let down by China’s national costume in Miss Universe; especially when we looked at last year’s costume and one of this year’s competitors.
• We got experimental with homemade shampoos! Perhaps ‘Miss China’ could take a gander at this one! If you have any leftover beer; then take a look…

Oh gosh, here's some really sad news. Remember Ever-spring Hall, which we featured a photo set of just a couple of days ago? The last couple of rainstorms were not kind to it - according to Shanghai Daily, its roof has completely caved in. more ›

Last year, Shanghai resident Katya Knyazeva stumbled upon Ever-spring Hall, a piece of historic Shanghai that had fallen by the wayside. Located just 100 meters east of the Temple of the City God on Wutong Lu, it was turned into a gymnasium at some point in time and then left to rot. A shame for architecture for which the saying was penned, "First, there is Ever-Spring Hall; second, there is Yu Garden." more ›

Shanghai has hosted all kinds of people - revolutionaries, capitalists, politicians, soldiers, artists, and gangsters. Shanghai has also hosted revolutions, assassinations, love stories. more ›

This video, The Shanghai Beat: a city of memory was created by people from the Knight Center for International Media at the University of Miami and showcases an oral history of the city by one 82-year-old born-and-bred Shanghainese and several other Shanghai residents. It's an interesting look at how Shanghainese themselves remember those tumultuous times, and how the generation after copes with a city that's modernizing quick, but sometimes leaving its past in the dust. more ›

China Heritage Quarterly, a publication covering recent developments related to China's heritage, has turned its focus onto Shanghai this quarter and now it's all online! Inside, you'll find everything from an expose on 1930s Shanghai wild girl Emily "Mickey" Hahn to the harmonizing of Shanghai's history in recent exhibitions around the world. It'll take a while to work through it, and I recommend that you do, but here are three picks I found exceptionally interesting: more ›

This sad little picture, taken by Paul French at China Rhyming, depicts what's left of British writer J.G. Ballard's childhood home now that it's been thoroughly gutted. Located on Panyu Lu and Xinhua Lu, the expat villa-turned-restaurant turned into a construction mess early last month. more ›

Brush up on your culture this week: Learn about the history of Hongkou district or Shanghai cabaret culture, catch a performance of Aida or King Lear, and drink and golf for charity- though not at the same time. more ›

With the Expo in 33 days and counting, the pace of demolition, renovation, and renewal in this city has only continued its forward sprint. While cleaning up for the Expo has been the primary motivation behind the large-scale demolition of old buildings and neighborhoods during the past few years, many have simply fallen victim to Shanghai’s rapid pace of urbanization. Those of us who live here are pretty immune by now to the daily sounds of construction and the sight of historical structures and traditional longtangs being torn down to make way for gleaming new residential or commercial buildings... but it still hurts to see it happen so wantonly. more ›

What better way to commemorate the end to two years of nonstop construction on our beloved Bund than by taking a trip back in time to see how it looked nearly a century before the new traffic tunnel was necessary? The stunning photographs you see before you are culled from Virtual Shanghai: Shanghai Urban Space in Time, a collection of more than 3,000 images edited by Christian Henriot from the Institut Universitaire de France. more ›

I don't care what half the people said on that recent post about how ugly Shanghai's new cruise ship terminal was - it is an architectural horror and the amount of commenters who signed up specifically to say it was great makes me wonder how many PR flackies SPARCH has on hand. But this post isn't about that - this post is about some real architecture worth oohing and aahing at: the plans for the Shanghai Cultural Plaza. more ›

Whether you were a Westerner living in the International Settlement or the French Concession or a well-heeled local, if you went out for a big Chinese dinner in the 1930's, you probably headed for Sun Ya. Sun Ya, now known as Xinya, is a mammoth four-floor establishment which served the best in Cantonese cuisine. Although the quality of the food has suffered in the intervening years, Xinya remains a popular establishment for large gatherings, especially wedding parties. The seafood "hot pot" meals and the "dim sum" are still worth a visit, as is the fact that Sun Ya/Xinya is somewhat of a culinary shrine. Because Shanghai had for so long been the primary point of contact with China for resident and visiting Westerners, and because Sun Ya was the restaurant they were most likely to know, it played a large part in establishing expectations for Cantonese food throughout the Western world. more ›

So not only will March 28 bring us the grand unveiling of the brand new Bund, it seems that the historic Peace Hotel has also chosen that day to welcome in the hordes. The north wing, which faces People's Square will retain its original appearance and the south wing will become a Swatch store. When it closed roughly three years ago, we mused on its history - you can read up on it here. more ›

• Jinjiafang might look like a typical Old Town lane, but its dilapidated courtyards harbor a scandalous history. [CNNGo]
• Oh boy, what's with the New York Times focus on Shanghai recently? First it listed out our blogs, and now its delving deep into our history - particularly how political intrigue here helped shape the country. [New York Times]
• Almost 10,000 journalists have applied to cover the World Expo here, including about "2,000 journalists from overseas media outlets." Wait, does that mean there's 8,000 journalists coming just from inside of China? That sounds dubious. [People's Daily]

Ah... for a somewhat peaceful start to your morning (and week), here's a sweet video by photographer Ryan Pyle as he rides down Da Jing Lu in Central Shanghai, an old lane way near the bund. Da Jing Lu, while not a particularly famous street, does contain a landmark amidst its hustle and bustle. A part of the old city wall can be seen at the corner of Da Jing Lu and Ren Min Lu. more ›

Let's all pour one out to our favorite little food street, which was cleaned up and moved into a shiny, but lifeless, food mall right next door sometime late last year. Today, the bulldozers came in and tore it down for good. The picture to the right is by NPR China correspondent Louisa Lim, who was there on the scene to witness the end to what once was known as Love Lane. more ›

Paul French is the author of Carl Crow: A Tough Old China Hand and Through the Looking Glass: China’s Foreign Journalists from Opium War to Mao. He is currently re-investigating the unsolved case of Pamela Werner, a young English girl horrifically murdered in Peking in 1937, to be published as Murder in Peking by Penguin Books. Today, he writes about some historic buildings we lost in 2009 thanks to thoughtless Shanghai development. more ›

We're fans of anything old timey, and so these photos of Shanghai (and Mongolia, and Beijing) in 1981 have really struck our fancy. Don't worry, despite depicting the 80s, there are no mullets or shoulder pads to be found. more ›