Local author takes to the roads
Print Edition
SHANGHAI got its first modern roads back in the 19th century, when the city boomed as a treaty port open to international trade.
By 2007, a total of 144 roads were listed as “historical and cultural streets,” among which 64 were entitled to special protection due to their connection with the city’s cultural heritage.
Because of their protected status, this means they cannot be widened to make way for traffic or other projects. Similarly, many the older buildings and communities on either side of these streets are virtually immune from being leveled.
Thus comes their collective name as “the non-expandable roads.”
Non-expandable roads
Out of the pure love for the city’s street life, Shanghai writer Zhu Xizhen has spent years exploring all 64 of these roads and faithfully documenting their histories, landmarks and local personalities. She has recorded her observations in the three volume series “The Non-Expandable Roads in Shanghai.”
Book One covers 20 roads in Huangpu and Hongkou districts; Book Two 24 roads in Xuhui, Jing’an and Changning districts; and Book Three 20 cross-district streets across the city.
For each road, there is a hand-drawn map and a QR code that readers can scan for more information if they want to embark on a walking tour on their own.
“The purpose of my writing about these roads is to remind and to inform,” said Zhu during a recent interview with Shanghai Daily.
“A road without something old is like a person without a memory,” she added.
As one of the most well-known pedestrian streets in the world, Nanjing Road boasts eight classic department stores and a good number of international franchise brands.
In an earlier era though, this bustling commercial street was once a race track for horses called Park Lane, whose history can be traced back to the 1845.
Does that give you a peep of what life once was when you are told it was also the first road in the city to be equipped with gas lamps along both sides of the road; the first community to be equipped with tap water; the first stop for the No.1 electric tram from the Bund to Jing’an Temple?
Do you know why the plane trees along Hengshan Road in the former French Concession are the most lush and dense in Shanghai?
Who are the owners of the villas secluded behind the high walls on Dongping Road?
What was it that made Tian’ai Road the most romantic road in Shanghai?
In addition to exploring the rich histories on and around these roads, the Shanghai veteran also introduces us to many of their modern charms.
At the Cottage Café on Tiaojiang Road, we get to chat with Lao Mai, an illustrator who plants daisies in a bathtub in his backyard.
Modern charms
At The Know Tea House on Yongjia Road, we sip the pu-erh tea served by a beautiful hostess hailing from Nakhi of Lijiang, southwest China’s Yunnan Province.
And at the Art-Deco Studio on Hengshan Road, we see pieces from emerging artists and hear of their big dreams in Shanghai.
“I have been making new discoveries along these streets for years. These people and their stories of the city are the living souls of the road. In them, history comes alive.
“I hope my readers can get involved with the real pulse of the city as they happen upon all of the intricacies of the local urban culture,” says Zhu.
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