Shanghai-French Concession

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Day three in Shanghai and I was keen to get to the art area in the French Concession. The French Concession seemed to be a wealthier part of town, with townhouse/rowhouses etc. Lonely planet described it as a leafy green area, with beautiful streets. It was a really neat part of town, but not leafy green at all in the winter! The trees were the same as the big street trees in Nelson (can’t remember their name, lime oaks???) , so I can imagine how leafy and green they would be during the rest of the year.

The Taikang Road art area was in a old group of shikumen houses (low-rise row houses built in the early 1900’s). It had been converted to lots of little laneways and shops/studio/cafe’s. It was pretty cool, not as many studios as I was imagining, more just shops etc, but it was still one of my favourite parts of Shanghai so far. We wandered around there for quite a while, we both bought a few things and then had a snack of some rather strange sponge cake style waffles!!

At the end of the day we went to another old area of brick shikumen houses in Xintiandi which had been restored. There was an open house display which showed the way of life (wealthy families), and alot of upmarket shops and restaurants. The area was beautiful with pretty street fairy lights, street trees and a very European feel.

Over and out
Hannah+Pete

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