Put on those walking shoes!
Dong Xiongfei (center in yellow) points to people the characteristic of the shikumen (stone-gate) style housing in downtown Laoximen community. Laoximen is one of the oldest neighborhoods that’s been around for over 500 years.
First initiated by city architects seeking design ideas that respected local traditions and community values, walking tours have sprung up for those who fancy a stroll around the city’s lane houses, historic buildings, classic gardens and unique markets.
“I began to explore and roam the downtown area of Shanghai with some of the walking tours in 2015,” said Yin Shu, a native of Shanghai who spent much of her childhood in a lane house on Changle Road.
She remembers a 2015 trip organized by the Hunan Road Community as eye-opening. Led by local residents, it took them more than two hours to finish the 1,000-meter-long Fuxing Road W., starting from the triangular garden on Fuxing Road W. to Dingxiang Garden on Huashan Road.
“Crossing Yongfu Road and Wukang Road, this part of the street is littered with modern apartments, celebrity homes and heritage villas. There are the Magy Apartments, the Boissenzon Apartments, the Willow Court, the Cloister Apartments, the Wilkinsons Residence, and many more,” Yin recalls.
It was the first time Yin had heard about the old names of Shanghai streets in the 1920s, when Fuxing Road W. was named Route Gustare de Boissenzon after the chief engineer for the Board of the International Settlement in Shanghai at that time and thus the Boissenzon Apartments at No. 26. It was also the first time she came to identify the architecture styles from the 1920s to the 1930s, such as Art Deco, Spanish style and English country homes.
She was inspired. From then on, Yin began her own explorations of the city and met Dong Xiongfei, an avid collector of vintage items, and Wang Lin, an architect, along the way.
The three launched WeChat account “UrbanExplorer” in March last year to offer guided walking tours of the city under different themes.
So far, 48 tours have been organized over weekends and public holidays. Each tour covers one or more historic neighborhoods that few people get a chance to see despite the fact that some may have lived in the city for most of their lives.
Dong Xiongfei shows his collection of delivery bags of the city’s photographic studios.
House number plaques that had been removed due to urban redevelopment since the 1990s are now showcased at Basement B0D on 868 Huashan Road.
“We welcome all on board, be you old house addicts, shutterbugs or foodies,” said Yin, who is in charge of updating posts, route planning and online reservation. “We are actually very open and it’s fun to join us.”
In April, they helped a Japanese woman Len Yohko, who lives in Shanghai, to stage a photo exhibition “A Day in 1985” at their basement workshop on Huashan Road.
“Yohko happened to join one of our tours the previous week in the Tilanqiao area in Hongkou. She approached us with many of her photos taken during her first trip to Shanghai in 1985. Though they are not professional works, they unfold a life of ordinary people then in Shanghai,” said Yin.
The one-month show opened with Yohko giving a talk on her days in Shanghai some 30 years ago and her love of life in China ever since.
“It was quite a success and we put it together to show the audience that keeping a record of your everyday life is essential and meaningful as we are all products of our past,” said Dong, who started collecting vintage items some 10 years ago.
Besides many second-hand household items, his collections include a dozen house number plaques that had been removed due to redevelopment since the 1990s, custom-printed delivery bags of the city’s many photographic studios, and BMI cards produced by automatic height and weight scales at local pharmacies.
“Some people are very detail oriented, and I find it a good way to engage with the fast changing society,” said Dong, who has yet to complete his goal of walking every block in Shanghai.
Wang has designed ties, scarves, T-shirts and bags with patterns, signs and motifs discovered on many of the walking tours.
“You listen to me,” she said. “Old trends keep coming back in fashion, as design is always based on some tradition of the past.”
Zhang Ying, from Shanghai Library, said: “I am glad that walking tours, as a different kind of reading of the city’s past and present, have been transformed into a popular culture pursuit among the people, even with commercial values.”
Professor Ou Qijin points to the Monument of Revolutionary Martyr Yang Daxiong in Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
Leading a citywide network of 22 district public libraries and 214 community libraries, the library offers a number of walking tours through its WeRead platform every year.
A Chinese proverb goes: “Read 10,000 books and walk 10,000 miles,” expressing the need to experience and go beyond mere book learning to truly understand things. Zhang said the WeRead tour does exactly what the proverb says.
So far, WeRead has offered walking tours of downtown areas to intangible cultural heritage workshops and tours themed on the city’s revolutionary history in collaboration with community libraries, theaters, publishers and various research centers and institutions.
“All guides are experts or researchers in their respective subjects. Many of them have amazing personal stories to share,” said Zhang, who’s been masterminding the WeRead tours since 2015. “Though each of my tours is limited to the first 25 people with reservations, I am glad to see the impact it leaves afterward.”
There are book readings and lectures before and after tours, and the library’s consulting team will come up with a list of ebook links for those who want to explore further.
“So use ‘me,’ I would say. We look forward to providing free and easy access to information, ideas, books and technology that enrich, educate and empower every individual in our city’s diverse communities,” Zhang said.
Zhang Ying from Shanghai Library takes notes at one of the walking tours.
