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Former French Concession
The former French Concession
is, for many visitors, the highlight of
a visit to Shanghai, delivering much of
what this fabled city promises. It's also
become the city's hottest and hippest neighborhood,
where trendy bars and clubs multiply like
mushrooms after a rainstorm. Shanghai's
idiosynctratic push-pull between new and
old, development and preservation, takes
a special form in the French Concession,
making it an absolutely unique urban experience.
The area still holds something
of the alluring mix of scrappy Shanghainese
street life, shopworn European colonial
charm, Art Deco edifices, hidden brick courtyards
and film noir intrigue that have, along
with the proud stone edifices of the Bund
and the twisting alleys of Shanghai's Old
City, long defined "Shanghai"
in the Western popular imagination.
Some of the French Concession's
delapidated villas and crowded shikumen
(stone gate) warrens have fallen to the
wrecking ball, others have been renovated
and reimagined, creating vibrant new streets
full of restaurants, boutiques and galleries
where only a few years ago metal-working
shops and local produce markets did their
business.
The good news for tourists is
that the trend has been as much toward renovation
as toward demolition and new construction,
allowing entrepreneur-driven hives of nascent
hip like Taikang Lu in the south to develop
as a solid alternative to the glitz of Huaihai
Zhong Lu to the north, the mega-mall mania
of Xujiahui in the west and the theme-park
historicism of Xintiandi at the eastern
end of the old French Concession.
In between the above-mentioned
points on the French Concession compass,
numerous small streets hold surprises for
the strolling urban explorer, from the cafes
on Shaoxing Lu to the shady nooks of Fuxing
Park; from the Art Deco grand dames standing
watch over Fuxing Lu as it heads west to
meet Huashan Lu to remaining shikumen like
Cit¨¦ Bourgogne.
An abundance of walking tours
can be traced through the French Concession's
streets and lanes. We'll be providing our
favorites in months to come on our Features
page, so stay tuned, and let us know about
your favorite French Concession finds.
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