The old town’s principal street, Fangbang Road, branded Shanghai Old Street in the 1990s and very popular with the tourists, is going down, old housing together with the new. A friend pointed out this photo set (let’s excuse the cat graffiti): https://www ( Read more... )

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Wangyima Lane 王医马弄 neighborhood was the last patch of medieval city fabric in central Shanghai. Nowhere else in the old town - not even in the glorious Qiaojia Road 乔家路 neighborhood, built up in the late 16th century and now also condemned - you could see such extreme fragmentation of ownership, which resulted in very oddly shaped and narrow alleys ( Read more... )

A couple more photos from Jack Birns' walk through the old town. The sharp-eyed sy-随意 helped identify the corner of Fangbang Road and the Jiujiachang Street:


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Fangbang Road, near Sipailou Road, in the 1990s and now:

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