Please be kindly informed that there will be no update on this page before mid September 2016 as I will be working at an archaeological site in France during the summer. I wish you all a very joyful summer! See you back soon!

Photos from Immersed in Shanghai's post

This is a belated writeup for our Saturday walk to the Shanghai Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) Museum (上海中医药博物馆), located inside the Shanghai TCM University (上海中医药大学) in Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park (张江高科技园区) in Pudong. The Museum has just been reopened since May 18th (the Museum Day) after having closed for 8 months for revamping. Now the enriched displays on the ground and 2nd floor focus on the history of TCM development in China in the past centuries while the 3rd floor is dedicated to raw materials, readily made medicines, and testing equipment. The Museum also has a green house and a fairly large herbal plant garden, with plagues to each species explaining its medical function. A common comment I kept hearing from the visitors is that "Wow, I can really learn a lot here." :-) Admission is free of charge until June 18th. Normal admission of RMB 15 per person will resume afterwards. Address of the Museum is 1200 Cailun Road (蔡伦路). To get there, take exit 5 at Zhangjiang Hi-tech Park station (张江高科站) on metro line 2. Then take Zhangjiang Tram line 1 (张江有轨电车1路) and get off at the 4th stop, Cailun Road - Jinke Road (蔡伦路金科路). Museum is closed on Mondays. Some of the photos posted are from our tour participants.

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This coming Thursday, May 19th, is the China Tourism Day (中国旅游日), on which some of the museums and parks in Shanghai will have 50% discount on their admission tickets. If you have time (I know, it's a working day!) and want to benefit from that, you may want to check on the posted images. It's all in Chinese but you can leave a message if you want me to check if any of your interested destinations are included :) The observatory decks in Jinmao Tower (金茂大厦88层观光厅) and in Shanghai World Financial Center (SWFC, 上海环球金融中心100层观光厅) will have discounted tickets.

Photos from Immersed in Shanghai's post

It was the second time that I visited the Nei-shi-di (内史第) in Chuan-sha town (川沙镇) in Pudong, Shanghai. Nei-shi (内史) is the name of a governmental position in ancient China, and Di (第) suggests a big mansion. The mansion was built somewhat 170 years ago but what we can see today is said to be only one third of its original size. It is surely a beautiful house, but what's intriguing is that a number of influential families once resided here, including the Soong sisters (宋氏姐妹) during their childhood, and Mr. Yanpei Huang (黄炎培, 1878 - 1965, not to be confused with Mr. Yuanpei Cai 蔡元培), an educator and a leader in Chairman Mao's government. Today the place is a memorial of Huang. Free admission, but a photoed ID is required. Just meters away from the house are the old streets of Chuan-sha, eg. Nan-shi-jie (南市街) and Bei-shi-jie (北市街), where facades of some "revolutionary" shops are kept but business doesn't seem doing that well. To get there, get off at Chuan-sha station (川沙站) on metro line 2, exit 1, followed by a 15-minute walk.

Photos from Immersed in Shanghai's post

It was a fabulous day out today. Four of us walked on one of my favorite routes - the Greater Shanghai Plan of the 1930's (大上海计划) - in today's Yangpu District (杨浦区). It's interesting to see the first four sites are all on the property of the Changhai Hospital (长海医院) today. @Kelly: the lollipop was indeed good when walking. Thank you! :) Photo 1-2: the former hygienic testing center Photo 3-4: the former hospital Photo 5-7: the former museum Photo 8-9: the former Aviation Association Photo 10: beautiful lawn and trees in the hospital

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12 of us ended our walking tour in Songjiang (松江) yesterday at the Thames town (泰晤士小镇), contributing a small portion to the so-called 1.8 million yearly visitors to this 1-square-kilometer community built 10 years ago. The figure, equivalent to 34,000 visitors per week, was just released last month in the Shanghai media, together with complaints from local residents of the deprivation of a tranquil life in their community on weekends. From our experience yesterday, which was a warm Sunday, this number of visitors is no exaggeration. Rowan is from London and her comment walking in her Chinese hometown is "surreal". Well, the last time I heard this word is from "Notting Hill", where Hugh Grant said to Julia Roberts "It's nice and surreal." :-0

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A river runs through the center of the Songjiang (松江) old town. On each side of the river lie West Zhongshan Road (中山西路) and Xiu-nan Street (秀南街). Dozens of houses bear the identification plate of "historic buildings", but their fate seems no different from those who don't have the plate. Local residents told me that these houses were vacated a couple of years ago, and then the dismantling project seemed suspended. Now no one knows what's going to happen next. I walked up and down the streets a few times, feeling hopeless seeing old doors now sealed with cement. Tomorrow where can we see our history, except for buying a ticket visiting a museum?!

Photos from Immersed in Shanghai's post

It's said that every beautiful city has a river running through and in Shanghai, it would definitely be the Suzhou Creek (苏州河). To understand the importance of this river to shaping Shanghai into an industrial pioneer in the contemporary Chinese history, my recommended visits now have a 4th museum, Suzhou Creek Industrial Civilization Museum (苏州河工业文明展示馆), located at 2690 West Guang-fu Road (光复西路). Too obvious, isn't it? :-) You will notice that the address also houses a pier for Suzhou Creek sight-seeing boats (苏州河游览码头). However, the service has been discontinued for a while and there is no information when it will be renewed. Enter the courtyard and you will see the 2-story building on your right which is the Museum. I find the displays interesting, especially an advertisement for Tianchu brand MSG (天厨牌味精, 3rd photo). The woman was putting the MSG into a bowl of soup because it would add appetite of a patient helping him to recover soon. What a change to people's thoughts! The Museum is open everyday except on Mondays, 9 am - 4pm. To get there, get off at Weining Road station (威宁路站) on metro line 2, followed by a short bus or taxi ride. The other three good museums to learn about the history of the Suzhou Creek and the industrial birth and development of Shanghai are: Meng-qing Yuan (梦清园, 66 Yichang Road 宜昌路); Textile museum (纺织博物馆), my post dated August 9, 2015; and Yimin food factory museum (益民食品厂博物馆), my post dated August 2, 2015.

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The government data indicates that among those who have their "hukou" (permanent residence) of Shanghai, 85,000 are Muslims, which is roughly 3 out of every 1,000 Shanghai permanent residents. For reference, the average in China is 16 Muslims out of every 1,000 Chinese. This sheds light when I was at Song-jiang Mosque (松江清真寺), the oldest Mosque built in Shanghai, as it probably explains why this Mosque has so many architectural elements similar to a Buddhist temple. The Mosque was first built in the 14th Century during the Yuan Dynasty (元代). What we see today is based on a large-scaled revamping completed in 1985. What fascinates me is the meandering wall (4th photo), which can be found in other Chinese gardens as well. To Chinese, the first impression after seeing this is probably a dragon. But seeing this image of "dragon" in a Mosque is the first time for me. The Mosque is located at 75 Gang-beng Lane (缸甏巷), near Renmin Road (人民路), within walking distance from Zui-bai-chi Park station (醉白池站) on metro line 9.

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In Shanghai where descriptions such as New, High, or Grand are commonplace, a train station that looks like from the early 1990's is a jewel, and that is Song-jiang train station (松江站). Passengers didn't seem in a hurry; they sat outside in the small garden waiting, some dozing. The ticket office only had two counters and barely could a queue form. In the waiting hall where there were more empty seats than occupied, what looked like red balloons hung from the ceiling were in fact electric fans wrapped in red plastic bags, to be unwrapped when summer comes :-) The train station appeared in Director Jia Zhang-ke's (贾樟柯) 2000 movie Platform (《站台》) which had settings in the 1980's, and now it's called a most nostalgic train station in Shanghai. To get there, take metro line 9 and get off at Zui-bai-chi park station (醉白池站), exit 2. Look at the metro station; it's more grand than the train station (last photo)!

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This park is near the Wu-song-kou port (吴淞口码头), where cruise ships are anchored today. The park is called Pao-tai-wan (炮台湾 in Chinese), literally meaning "canon platform bay", taken from the fact that canons were made here in the Qing Dynasty. The canon on display was actually excavated in the neighborhood. The park is rather big and I probably only covered one tenth of it. It's a good place to be away from traffic and crowd, looking at the sea, ships, grass, birds ... good for picnics and even team-building :-0 To get there, take metro line 3 and get off at You-yi Road (友谊路站). Then take Bao-shan bus No. 23 (宝山23路) at the intersection of Pan-gu Road (盘古路) & Zhang-ling Road (樟岭路). Get off at Tang-hou Road (塘后路) & Shuang-cheng Road (双城路).

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Right outside the Mei-lan-hu station (美兰湖站, ie. Mei-lan Lake) on metro line 7 in the Bao-shan District (宝山区) in northern Shanghai is the residential town built in the Swedish style in 2009, one of the 9 foreign-style towns built in the suburbs of Shanghai (You can scroll down and refer to my October 30th, 2015 post on the Holland town, 荷兰新城). Compared to Luo-dian old town (罗店老镇), the Mei-lan Lake residential area is much more easily accessible by subway and sits right on the side of a highway. It's said that there is a golf course in the area, but I didn't go and it's probably not within walkable distance anyway. So what's new there, compared to the last time when I was there, which is about 5 years ago? - The traffic in the new town is certainly busier, tens of thousands of electric bikes parked around (literally around :)) the subway station. Going-through vehicles on the main streets are noticeable. - The apartment buildings right outside the metro station look pretty occupied, seen from the laundry hung in the balconies and number of small stores open on the ground level. - But in the “town center" where commerce was supposed to flourish in those Swedish styled buildings, the situation is not quite optimistic: at most only 1/3 of the shops are open, probably more shop assistants than customers, and the "rose garden" looks having been deserted for a while. - I don't know the occupancy rate of those villas in the area, but obviously more are under construction...