Historic Shanghai

Historic Shanghai Our mission is to raise awareness of Shanghai's unique built heritage and cultural history.

The starting point for our exploration of Shanghai is its unique built heritage: Art Deco dominates the pre-1949 architecture of this city, but we find everything from "Tudorbethan" to Mediterranean and China's own "Nanjing Decade" style in city's lane neighborhoods, mansions, commercial and civic buildings. Historic Shanghai organizes a monthly French Concession tour, as well as presentations, ex

pert and author talks, and film screenings that illustrate and illuminate Shanghai’s history and culture. In August 2011, Historic Shanghai successfully bid for the 2015 Art Deco World Congress to be held in Shanghai. For more on the World Congress in Shanghai, visit www.shanghaiartdeco.net

Exploring the origins of Shanghai’s wealth and cosmopolitanism—hint, it came from industry—along the riverside. Ships an...
05/05/2026

Exploring the origins of Shanghai’s wealth and cosmopolitanism—hint, it came from industry—along the riverside. Ships and warehouses, dry docks, waterworks, and granaries, from Yangpu to Pudong, with a ferry ride in between, on a beautiful May afternoon.

Aaand that’s a wrap for May holiday walks, 2026 edition! Thanks to all who came along and walked with us over the holiday!

There’s less Lu Xun than usual in Shanghai. China’s most famous modern writer is at the heart of our annual Lu Xun and t...
04/05/2026

There’s less Lu Xun than usual in Shanghai.

China’s most famous modern writer is at the heart of our annual Lu Xun and the Left-Wing Writers walk, commemorating the May 4th movement of 1919 which sought to create a new, modern China, including its literature.

Lu Xun, the most influential, is a darling of Hongkou, where he lived for almost a decade—but the “Lu Xun trail” was a little abbreviated this year, with the closure of both the Lu Xun Museum and the League of Left-Wing Writers Museum.

There’s some serious rethinking of his legacy going on, but his statue and tomb are still intact, and people are still leaving flowers and gifts of ci******es. His residence is still open, and so are Hongkou’s heritage buildings and lanes, and lively street and park life!

Historic Shanghai day-tripped to Fuxing Island and environs this afternoon, and in between the history, the industrial h...
03/05/2026

Historic Shanghai day-tripped to Fuxing Island and environs this afternoon, and in between the history, the industrial heritage and the flower festival, we amused ourselves by taking a lot of team photos.

And why not? Shanghai’s history is nothing if not photogenic!

Fuxing Island used to be the land that time forgot: rusting relics from its industrial past lined the island’s single, v...
30/04/2026

Fuxing Island used to be the land that time forgot: rusting relics from its industrial past lined the island’s single, very quiet road. Hardly anyone visited—perhaps a few history buffs like us, seeking the cottage where Chiang Kai-Shek spent his last night on the mainland.

But now, Fuxing Island has been reimagined: the cranes are surrounded by a field of flowers, the warehouses hold sculpture galleries, and the old factories are offices. It is a delightful reimagining, leaving the old structures intact and part of the landscape.

Join us on Sunday on a visit to Fuxing Island and Yangpu’s Industrial Heritage— there’s more yet to be transformed, so come see the past and the future!

Sunday May 3, 2pm
Fuxing Island and Yangpu’s Industrial Heritage
RMB 200 members, 300 nonmembers

To Book: https://jinshuju.com/f/MP69fd

🌺May is a-coming! Join us for a month of walks that takes us far and wide in Shanghai, because Shanghai’s history, too, ...
29/04/2026

🌺May is a-coming!

Join us for a month of walks that takes us far and wide in Shanghai, because Shanghai’s history, too, goes far and wide:

This month, we’ll find our city’s story on both sides of the river and an historic island; in an old Jesuit enclave and in the Art Deco and left-wing writers of Hongkou; the buildings of the Nanking Decade and treasures in Yangpu; and an ancient classical garden in Qingpu …and more!

Event descriptions here: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/N7a76EJJVl4SpOGhLQgs_g

Bookings here: https://jinshuju.com/f/MP69fd

Email: [email protected]

Shanghai’s history is fascinating, but it’s also complicated, and wildly so. To help make sense of it all, our Shanghai...
26/04/2026

Shanghai’s history is fascinating, but it’s also complicated, and wildly so. To help make sense of it all, our Shanghai history series takes a different period of history to focus on every month, and then we take a walk through the city of that era, reading the architecture and sharing the history.

Today, we hunted down the roaring ‘20s, Shanghai-style, in the buildings and lanes, stories, and characters, and the legacies and landscapes of the past that have created our present.

Next month: the Nanking Decade in Shanghai, May 23, 2pm

POP UP! This Thursday, (23 April) we infiltrate the former Continental Bank vault! It’s one of the great bank vaults of ...
21/04/2026

POP UP! This Thursday, (23 April) we infiltrate the former Continental Bank vault!

It’s one of the great bank vaults of Old Shanghai, in one of the great Art Deco banks. The vault has remained in close to its original state—there are even some original, unopened safes, just waiting for their owners to claim them!

We’ll visit another nearby vault as well, and then take a walk to see the cathedrals of commerce that once housed the fortunes of the city—banks from around the world and around China, with their vast columned marble halls and exquisitely decorated details.

POP UP! Thursday April 21, 9.15am (meet), 9.30am (tour begins)
Inside Old Shanghai’s Bank Vaults
RMB 200 members, 300 nonmembers

Places are limited, sign up early!

BOOKINGS: https://jinshuju.com/f/IMuQOz or email [email protected]

A little slice of Shanghai, outside the Concessions, on a long Sunday stroll.Much has been demolished, for progress is d...
20/04/2026

A little slice of Shanghai, outside the Concessions, on a long Sunday stroll.

Much has been demolished, for progress is deep in this city’s DNA, but Old Shanghai was so big, so dense, that there is still so much—especially, but not exclusively, outside the Concessions.

Come, walk with us …

Shifting perspectives in a Classical Chinese garden, a reminder that there are many perspectives, many ways of seeing. O...
18/04/2026

Shifting perspectives in a Classical Chinese garden, a reminder that there are many perspectives, many ways of seeing.

On today’s visit to Zuibaichi 醉白池with garden scholar Shelly Bryant, who opened up the world of the garden to us…lucky us!

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