More about Shanghai Walk v03
Our third part of more about Shanghai Walks. We are heading to the north of Shanghai, the celebrated Shanghai Ghetto. Less than 50 yards of Ti Lan Qiao stop off the metro line 12, we are at the Jewish quarter in Hong Kou district. Back in the 30s and early 40s, about 30,000 Jewish people lived in this area, once supposed to the only area where Jews felt safe in the world in that time.
Jewish people has been historically associated to Shanghai for commerce and business interests since 1840s, Sasson and Hatton are the most influential ones among them, they left their brilliance in Shanghai’s landmark. However, you get more insights about Jewish life in Shanghai when you visit the Ghetto, where you learn the story how this city accommodated their arrival, especially in the turmoil of the war in Europe.
Jewish Quarter remains much the same structure as it was, refugee’s shelter, white horse inn, Synagogue (now it’s converted into a museum, our blog image), Former distribution committee, HoShan Park, office of treasury. The former Synagogue is renovated to its original look, open to the public, volunteers give the tour guides. Some previous residents contributed their possessions to the museum and their stories are simply moving. Currently about 14000 survivals name are engraved on the right wall, every now and then more names are added with visitors’ information.
The neighbourhood is an reserved area, where the local authority takes pride for preserving its authenticity. Café (White Horse Inn) and Park (HoShan Park) are carefully maintained their characters, on the back of the park, the former JDC building is restored by Israeli government’s fund.
You will need about a couple of hours to visit this area, a worthy trip to get to know about the city.
How to get the most of Shanghai Walk
How to get the most of Shanghai Walk?
A favourite walk of mine is at the old Shanghai French concession, where some of interesting houses hidden away from the traffic, the lines of plane trees cover the streets, little boutiques sit quietly among the residences. Around the area, quite a few museums and galleries have established themselves over the years.
Around 10am, we set off from Wu Yuan Road (just off Metro line 1 & line 7, Chang Shu Road). On the road, one of the late artists Le Ping Zhang’s residence was turned into a museum, his art works are displayed. A very popular caricaturist, children worshipped him. Next, we took the left turn to Fu Xing Xi Road, where you can visit another celebrity (a late author Ke Ling) residence. Our blog image is taken outside his house. Authority prioritises the area of the maintenance for tourist interests, you can find enough celebrities’ houses available for public visits.
Plenty to see. We had to march on, quickly we found ourselves at Shanghai Propagandar Art Centre. Located in one of the blocks basement at Hua Shan Road, it has been there almost twenty years. The authority started funding it since 2012. Majority of its collections are since 1949, I got the bulk buy of postcard at its souvenir shop. A friend of mine felt Einstein is out of the place on the propaganda postcard. The great man once said “truth is born out through the test of experience”, perhaps that made him into the league. Chinese is renowned for being pragmatic.
We took a couple of turns, where Shanghai Drama Academy is in the middle of enrolling students, passed Wu Lu Mu Qi Road, we browsed “Safari Photography Exhibition” on the 3rd floor of Shanghai Hotel. Almost 2pm, after we visited late Yuan Pei Cai’s old residence, we must take a break, we were so relieved to find a cosy restaurant at Chang Shu Road, just opposite the old Little Theatre.
We were happy.