Me Love You Longtang

Shanghai is China's most progressive and westernized city, so if you want to see "real China" this is not really the best place to go. The city runs at a frenetic pace; construction sites and traffic jams wrap themselves around the people and run 24 hours a day. But you can still find glimpses of what Shanghai used to be like in little nooks and crannies around town, most notably in the old residential neighbourhoods called longtangs (弄堂).


These longtangs aren't readily advertised in tourist guides or websites, but if you can find time to visit one, you get to see a completely different side of Shanghai. These closed-off areas can hold hundreds upon hundreds of two-story townhouses, all packed into small blocks by tight alleyways that run off the main "street". At one point in the 1940's, these housing tracts were so popular that they housed 80% of the city's population.

With cars and construction no longer a concern, everything goes at a slower pace here. You can find people are outside fixing their bikes, playing cards, or just chatting with friends. Peek inside the apartments and you can see men sitting at mahjong tables and hear them trash-talking each other or telling jokes loudly. Even on the emptier alleys you can get a sense of neighbourhood that is usually lost in large cities like Shanghai.













Each house is known as a shikumen (石库门), literally "stone gate", because the entrances are usually just facades used to hide small courtyards.













But it's hard to hide just how packed these places are. Apparently it's not uncommon for the shikumen owner to sublet his own place, splitting the central room into two (or more) rooms to accommodate a second family of tenants. It's kinda like renting out your basement, if your basement was the other half of your living room.