Wandering Through “Old Shanghai”

I have already written numerous times about the unique and beautiful city of Shanghai China. It is of course famous for its towering, and futuristic, skyline but there are also numerous older and historic neighborhoods such as the French Concession, "The Bund" and “Old Shanghai.” Lindsay and I experienced the latter during a mid-day stroll through the city. We were actually working our way from the French Concession to the shopping district of Yuyuan bazaar when we stumbled on the lovely alleyways and narrow streets of Old Shanghai. There were bustling small shops/markets mixed among cute old buildings with locals coming and going on bikes, motorcycles and foot. The numerous narrow alleyways that broke off from the main roads almost always had small tables for people to sit and clothes hung out to dry overhead. I have found that this area is actually quite hard to describe but luckily we were able to capture this by taking a quick picture (see below). We didn’t think the picture was anything that special but when we got home and looked at it closer we realized that it pretty much sums up Old Shanghai perfectly. You can see the old buildings with their wooden windows, the laundry hung across the alley, tables with locals, motorcycles, bikes and if you look closely you can even see a shop owner talking to a young neighborhood girl and to top it all off a picture of Mao displayed in the alleyway. Although Lindsay and I just briefly passed through Old Shanghai it was such a unique neighborhood that we will never forget it.