Thursday we headed over to the French Concession and did the start of a Tour.
Apparently, in the early 1900s (1800s?) the Europeans moved into Shanghai, took over a part of town and said "THIS IS OURS" and the Shanghai people apparently conceded... there used to be these Concessions for the British, German, etc.The French Concession, or as our hotel concierge calls it, the "Former French Concession" is a cute little neighborhood, artsy, seems to be up and coming sort of a neighborhood.
We started out at the Old Book Shop co-owned by a Dutch(?) photog and his partner, an American ex-pat woman who own it as sort of a book shop meets tea house. Angie and I both bought books from the owner of aerial photographs he took of the city:
You can kind of see that area to the back and to the left.... it is an opening to a fountain...
Across the street, there was a cute little French Bakery.
These tassle things were hanging up everywhere... I still haven't gotten a good explanation of what they are.
Vienna isn't exactly French... but it appears to fit into the feel of the hood...
Kept heading down the smaller tree-lined street, and ended up passing a park that we went in. There were a lot of older people there relaxing and cooling off in the shade. We got the big stare-down when we went in.
Just photographed this angry recycling bin... not sure what he's so mad about
Visions of Sugar Plums... at a corner fruit market....
Very European buildings
Solves a parking problem...
This was an old French Police Station and then a Chinese one, I think it is empty now, but it goes back pretty far and looks like it is huge from the inside.
Random Westernized "Super Diner" in the French Concession.
Check this out....
Seemed to be quite a few jazz/blues clubs around the city
Just more building sites...
Apparently this was a house of an important Chinese Government Official... not sure...
New construction is springing up everywhere...construction workers weren't wearing hard hats though...
I took a few pictures of these little neighborhoods that would reach way back into the block from the street... this was one of the nicer ones we saw.
Right about this time, I was thirsty and I needed a band aid for a blister... we got both beer and a band aid at this little place. A group of geeky teenage kids came in about half-way through their drink but they were definitely more interested in themselves than us, which was a nice change from some of the attention we had gotten at the Expo.
The French influence remains
Again with the laundry hanging outside from apartments everywhere
More fun translations...
Another one of these microcosm neighborhoods...
