China Guide
Shanghai
The Old City
To cross the boundaries into the Old City – that strange oval on the map, circumscribed by two roads, Renmin Lu and Zhonghua Lu, which follow the old path of the city walls – is to enter a different world. Its twisting alleyways are a haven of free enterprise, bursting with makeshift markets selling fish, vegetables, cheap trinkets, clothing and food. The centre of activity today is an area known as Chenghuang Miao, surrounding the two most famous sights in the whole city, the Yu Yuan and the Huxin Ting teahouse, both located right in the middle of a new, touristy bazaar.
The Old City never formed part of the International Settlement and was known by the foreigners who lived in Shanghai, somewhat contemptuously, as the Chinese City. Based on the original walled city of Shanghai, which dated back to the eleventh century, the area was reserved in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as a ghetto for vast numbers of Chinese who lived in conditions of appalling squalor, while the foreigners carved out their living space around them.