Shanghai through the lens of Soviet documentary filmmakers (1949-1950)
An absolute must-see! China through the lens of Soviet documentary cinematographers. Unique archival color footage taken in 1949-1950 and never screened before, including lots of vivid scenes in Shanghai and Beijing.
[Click to see many stills (mostly from Shanghai):]
Beijing city wall:
Shanghai, battle for the city in May 1949; soldiers running along Sichuan Road toward the bridge across Suzhou Creek:
South Shanxi Road, looking across Beijing Road:
Down goes the Kuomintang flag, thrown off the roof of the Broadway Mansions:
Waving the Communist flag on the roof of the General Post Office:
The central part of the Bund:
The Yokohama Specie Bank, Yangtsze Insurance Building and Jardine Matheson & Co:
The Bund, next to the HSBC building:
One of the lions in front of the HSBC:
The iconic view of the Bund from the top of the Gützlaff Tower:
View inland from the Gützlaff Tower along Avenue Edward VII, toward the Cotton Exchange and Chung Wai Bank:
Tibet Road, I think:
The Bund:
View from the Broadway Mansions over Suzhou Creek:
Motorboats on Suzhou Creek:
Bubbling Well Road, near the Racecourse:
View over Hongkou:
The French Consulate - has anyone seen it in color before? - and the Messageries Maritimes:
Luban Road, Wastewater treatment plant tower and the French depot:
Living on boats:
Apocalyptic sunset:
Counting the money as the boat passes the Embankment Building:
Royal coat of arms on the gate of the British Consulate, 33 on the Bund:
Traffic in front of the Cathay House:
Passenger in a pedicab:
Pedicab and rickshaw traffic on the Bund:
And in some narrow streets:
Rickshaw passengers, sometimes defiant, sometimes guilty-looking, caught on the Soviet camera:
Looking south along Luban Road, toward the Water Treatment Plant's water tower:
The overgrown facade of the Picardie:
Tibet Road, near the New World:
Miserable life on the banks of Zhaojia Creek:
