[hkskyline]

This 2-block complex of high-end restaurants, mostly lodged in refurbished traditional Shanghainese stone-frame housing, is the first phase of an urban renewal project covering 52 hectares that resulted in the relocation of 3,500 families. Busloads of domestic Chinese tourists traipse through in the evenings, Western visitors feel like they've never left home, and hip young Shanghainese flood here to enjoy the good life they feel they're due.

More photos : www.geocities.com/asiaglo...ai-bar.htm

Although the redevelopment work is quite nice, I'm not a big fan of these bar districts. This is Shanghai, and these bars make it no different than any other typical Western city. If the world will become so homogeneous then there really isn't an incentive to travel anymore.

 

[ganjavih]

Once again, nice tour. I'm surprised at how Western the architecture in this district looks.

 

[wyliepoon]

I also think that Xintiandi (the name of the development) is a nice development, but the area around it is very depressing, especially for a North American urbanist. Last year I walked to Xintiandi from the Metro station nearby, and all I could see was whole blocks of old 2-storey Shanghai homes, much like those preserved in Xintiandi, being knocked down. If the city continues to develop like that, sooner or later the only place where you can find traditional Shanghainese residential housing is in Xintiandi- the gentrified, commercialized and Disneyland version of it.

A little bit of trivia- the first meeting of the Chinese Communist Party (the same party that rules the country today) was held in a building that is now part of Xintiandi. Perhaps it's because of that special historic status that Xintiandi's buildings were saved while everything else around it was knocked down.

 

[EnviroTO]

Is English a widely spoken second language in Shanghai or is it just the signs that give that illusion?