Xintiandi before development
The Shikumen Open House Museum is in the middle of the area known as Xintiandi. The whole area of Xintiandi was recognised by property developers from Hong Kong as having huge potential and it was the first area in the whole of mainland China to be “renovated” rather than bulldozed away. Work began in 1996. The success of the renovations and the preservation of heritage made the the Government rethink its policy of out with the old and in with the new, to the extent that all over the country the Chinese are starting to recognise the value of some of their architectural heritage. Part of Xintiandi was completely knocked down and on that patch two splendid linked shopping Malls known as Xintiandi Style have been built and completed four and half years ago. In the north of the area, some of the unique Shikumen frontages have been kept and the old wooden interiors remodelled and
Xintiandi
replaced with steel reinforced concrete interiors and whilst most of the structures have been completely rebuilt, in one small area the internal wooden structures have been completely renovated and contain firstly the Shikumen Open House Museum which shows how these houses were originally lived in as well as having a good display about the whole history of the renovation of the area. The other completely renovated building is the site of the 1st National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party which forms part of the Red Tourism trail which I’ll write about in another blog post. Shikumen houses are an amalgam of western and Chinese housing styles which came into being uniquely in Shanghai because of the presence of so many Chinese crowding into the Chinese Old City. A traditional Chinese house has several wooden buildings built around a courtyard, with one entrance from the courtyard into the street. Because of the number of Chinese arriving in Shanghai to shelter during the Taiping Rebellion in the 1850s and later conflicts, the scarcity of housing in the City reached a critical point. Chinese families were no longer confined in overcrowded conditions to the old city as they had been and houses were built in areas such as the French Concession and one of these was Xintiandi. But to increase the density of housing the principle of european terraced housing was introduced whilst maintaining the concept of a Li or community – an area for 25 families to live together in what is known as a longtang (laneway) or lilong (community). Many Li of terraced houses built together behind gates onto the main roads to help ensure the safety of those within. The Shikumen were not wooden but stone (or rather brick) built as in Europe and often had lintels decorated in European styles.
Terracotta lintel
Stone lintel
I couldn’t find the Open House museum at first – its obvious entrance was closed, but going round the corner and into a shop I found it.
Shikumen Courtyard
Above Shikumen courtyard
Reception room
Oven fed with fuel from the back
Kitchen cabinet
Desk
Traditional Bed
Tingzijian Room
Fashion Show Tent
At the end of the street on which the museum stands was a big tent. It turned out that we are in the middle of Shanghai Fashion Week 2015 and I had stumbled across the venue. I wandered along the street and, fascinated by the crowds, I found a convenient spot next to a green China Post postbox and started to photograph some of the attention seekers and poseurs that are attracted to such things. It was an entertaining half hour, and I only wish that I had had my telephoto lens with me, as the shots would have been so much better. I wasn’t sure who was there to buy, or to sell, or to see or to be seen, but nearly all were there to pose. 
The Prey becomes hunted
The Paparazzi
A bit disconcertingly I became the brief focus of attention from a professional photographer who was rapidly joined by another. I can only think it was because of my grey felt coat made by the Swedish designer Gudrun Sjöden, but which has qibao inspired pink and maroon details. It certainly wasn’t because of my looks, and I managed to hide behind my camera. All whilst the normal traffic flowed down the street. 
An Essence Café Coffee Experience
I went on from there for a wander around the rest of Xintiandi before ending up at the Essence Café where I indulged myself with what turned out to be an overly-frosted and under-risen carrot cake and an interesting way of serving specialist single estate coffee. In the small glass bowl is the recently ground coffee for smelling. In the wine glass is the dripped coffee served with ice, which the note on etched the small wooden tray urges you to
Flavour profile
drink first before then drinking the hot cup of dripped coffee. I had chosen a single estate Kochere Yirgacheffe coffee from Ethiopia and the flavour profile was detailed in the handy little book that was already on my table. Now this was not cheap by any stretch of the imagination, but I hadn’t experienced anything like this before.
