Introduction
Once entering Shanghai Old Street, you would feel returning to the bustling market of Shanghai 100 years ago when Shanghai was made the first open port. Here you can find the folk life style of old Shanghai, a miniature of old Shanghai Downtown Street. It is a characteristic street centered on tourism, shopping and culture-exhibition. Various old stores are gathered here: exchange shops, jewelry shops, taverns, tea houses, theatrical stages and business houses… Known as Fangband Road, it is always the “crowd corridor” with a total of 825 meters, being adjacent to the Yuyuan Garden Bazaar Area and runs in an east-west direction from Zhonghua Road to Henan Road South, with both ends marked by decorated archways. The unique location and the human landscape on the sides makes Shanghai Old Street possess abundant commercial culture.
Structure
The street can be divided into the eastern and western section. The eastern section keeps the characteristics of residences in the late Qing Dynasty and early Republican day. The houses on both sides of the street are fitted with checkered windows, shop-fronts of wooden boards, balustrades and swing doors, roofs with upturned eaves and protruding corners, laced drain-pipes and horse-shape wall tops.
Architectures
he western section is filled with Ming and Qing style architectures, with black tiles and white-washed walls, red columns and upturned eaves, showcasing styles of old Shanghai. The western section has a number of antique & curio shops as well as restaurants and teahouses. While the eastern sections has a variety of shops including florists, shoe and clothing retailers, noodle restaurants and specialty dealers selling Chinese tea and snacks such as "Five Fragrant Beans" (Wuxiang Dou).
In the street you will find hundred-year old stores: Tonghanchun, Laotongsheng, Wuliangcai, Wanyouquan, Qiu Tianbao, Old Shanghai Tea House, Deshun Western Food Restaurant, Chunfeng Deyi Restaurant, Chunfeng Deyi Restaurant, Xishi Soya Beancurd Store, Dingniangzi Cloth Store, Rongshun Restaurant and Baoyintang. There are also newly opened Danfeng Tea House, Clinic of renowned traditional Chinese medical doctors and others of traditional characteristics.