Shanghai Then and Now: What a Difference Four Years Makes

Shanghai is a super-charged city. New skyscrapers constantly redefine the skyline, while historic streets quietly slip off the map as redevelopers move in. Innovative dining and bar trends ignite, get shamelessly copied, and pass swiftly onto the next hottest thing (currently ‘gourmet street skewers’ and Shanghai’s first rakia bar).

Check-in Asia was recently asked to update an upscale guidebook we first wrote back in 2011. At that time, Shanghai was fresh from hosting the 2010 World Expo, a period defined by an unprecedented citywide infrastructure upgrade. This was the time that Shanghai established itself – in the eyes of the world’s media, at least – as a 21st-century global metropolis.

While Shanghai’s high-octane urban redefinition has since reduced in scale, updating the guidebook this spring reminded us of the substantial changes Shanghai has experienced in the past four years. The world’s second-tallest skyscraper has been inserted into the Pudong skyline, an additional three metro lines added to the world’s most extensive subway network, and a super-sized Disneyland is poised to open its fantastical gates this summer.

Other evolutions have been less obvious, but no less important, in Shanghai’s lifestyle makeover.

Curating Culture

The government’s focus on improving Shanghai’s cultural offerings has resulted in several excellent new museums, galleries, theatres and entertainment venues. Taken together, they have bolstered a previously lacklustre arts scene. Two World Expo pavilions have been recast as sophisticated new visual art hubs. The China Art Museum showcases the world’s biggest collection of modern Chinese art in the former China Pavilion, and the nation’s first state-run contemporary art museum, the Power Station of Art, occupies a 1930s riverside power plant.

Meanwhile, a tract of industrial riverfront has been transformed into the West Bund Cultural Corridor, home to a growing collection of excellent private museums, including the Long Museum and Yuz Museum. The Shanghai Natural History Museum has moved its amazing 10,000+ piece collection of dinosaur bones and other relics to a new custom-built venue designed by American architects Perkins+Will in the Shanghai Sculpture Park.

Disappearing Lanes

If only local authorities placed as much importance on preserving Shanghai’s beguiling urban heritage. A swathe of the guide’s Yuyuan and Xintiandi chapter content has effectively disappeared. These are some of the oldest areas of Shanghai, but aggressive developers are hell-bent on refashioning them with glass and concrete. Dongtai Road was once home to a quaint antiques street market that was a popular draw for tourists seeking fun vintage souvenirs in the leafy old lanes. Today, it has been reduced to rubble – about to be overlaid with yet more malls and luxury apartment blocks.

Nearby on Fangbang Road, the colourful local street food market has been forcibly removed and once thriving residential lanes flattened for construction. If the shoddily constructed ‘European style’ mall that has sprung up just behind Shanghai’s sole remaining segment of old city wall is an indication of what’s to come, we’re not impressed.

The lessons of recent history are being overlooked. A ‘heritage’ development that held some promise when it first opened around the time of writing the previous guidebook stands as a cautionary tale. Sinan Mansions comprises several blocks of reclaimed villas in the former French Concession. As is the way in China, these lovely old villas were mostly torn down and rebuilt as new.

Although the results were rather devoid of classic character, several popular Shanghai restaurateurs opened initially popular bars and restaurants here. A Peruvian restaurant, private chef’s table, and a beer garden were among the early entrants… until landlords dramatically increased rents and everyone moved out. Sinan Mansions is now a ghost town, with a random mix of tenants and no integrated destination appeal. Needless to say, it didn’t make the cut in the new edition of our latest guide.

Heritage Turned Hip

Across the city, Shanghai’s most famous strip of early 20^th century architecture – The Bund – showcases the benefits of defining a destination, rather than selling out to short-term gains. Each stunning granite mansion along the Huangpu riverfront is rich with potential, yet only some of the upscale restaurants, lounges and stores located here are successfully managed.

Three on the Bund has trialled numerous concepts since unveiling its luxury lifestyle destination in a neoclassical building with redesigned interiors by Michael Graves more than a decade ago. The Evian Spa and Armani Casa are now shuttered, but renewed efforts to stay en vogue are succeeding. Shanghai’s party people throng to its collection of cool restaurants, including three restaurant concepts by Jean Georges Vongerichten and a ‘Miami-style’ rooftop terrace.

Bund 18 is another hot address – culinary superstar Joël Robuchon opened his first mainland China restaurant here in March 2016, adding to top dining venues including Paul Pairet’s Mr & Mrs Bund and a Hakkasan outpost. Of the other Bund buildings, much of the so-called prime real estate earmarked for fashion flagships stands vacant as luxury retailers relocated to the smartly managed The Peninsula Arcade at the north end of the Bund.

Niche Chic

Back in its 1920s halcyon days, Shanghai combined grand largesse with niche chic. Almost a century later, it’s on a more intimate scale that Shanghai is presenting its creative persona. China’s east coast metropolis attracts entrepreneurs from home and abroad to create their dream projects, adding a fun, multi-cultural layer to Shanghai – both by day and after dark.

The dining scene, in particular, has diversified considerably since we last surveyed it so closely in 2011. In our latest guide update we selected a stellar Shanghai selection of artisanal coffee shops, fine French bakeries, cool cocktail lounges and imaginative chef-inspired restaurants that didn’t exist four years ago. But our lips must remain sealed, as the publisher is not quite ready to unveil their names… so watch this space (or send us a private message).

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