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The Bulldozing of Old Shanghai – The End Huangpi Lu South

Posted: June 20th, 2018 | 4 Comments »

I made a point yesterday about the tragic destruction of the former Rue du Consulat (Jinping Lu), the last fully arcaded street in the former French Concession. Tragically that is not all the destruction that is occurring in the old Frenchtown – Huangpi Lu (Rue Bayle) and Hefei Lu (Rue du Pére Froc) are also being bulldozed. This is also incredibly sad – the buildings were all structurally sound, many had been refurbished on both sides of the Huangpi Lu and it was a genuine community. The eastern side of the street is coming down; the western side is plaqued as a “Model Quarter”, but it’s future cannot be assured now of course and plaques mean nothing in Shanghai. An especial tragedy is the loss of the corner structure on the junction of Huangpi and Hefei – these marvellous (and unique to Shanghai) corner buildings are now a seriously endangered species across the former concessions.

As I mentioned yesterday it is upsetting yet important to archive the philistine destruction of a once great city’s architecture. At some point I am convinced young Shanghainese will gaze around their architecturally bland and soulless city and wonder why it had to be trashed. There’s no going back of course, Shanghai is very close to finished architecturally now – a few stand out buildings and a Bund are not representative of anything if no ordinary houses, lanes, retail shops, fire stations, cop shops, schools etc exist. They’re like the dinosaur in London’s Natural History Museum, impressive but without any perspective.

It’s also important to challenge the still off-heard comment (at least a lot of people say it to me at events) that no further destruction will occur in Frenchtown, that the Party, the government and their developer cronies know the tourism and heritage value of the former French Concession. Sadly that is utterly untrue. The horrific faux heritage of Xintiandi shows that; the destruction of the Jian Ye Li shikumen cluster to create a luxury Capella hotel shows that; the bulldozing of Jinling Lu shows that and now the bulldozing of Huangpi Lu/Hefei Lu shows that.

The pictures below show the boarded up stretch of Huangpi Lu and the final picture shows the junction with Hefei Lu facing east indicating that the entire enormous block is slated to go….

 

 


4 Comments on “The Bulldozing of Old Shanghai – The End Huangpi Lu South”

  1. 1 Dean Harden said at 4:10 am on June 25th, 2018:

    Dear Paul, I have read your articles over the years in various forms but this the first I think that allowed me to contact you. I have walked the French concession and other areas of SHG for the past 12 years and have many photos of this redevelopment you write of.
    Many thanks for the written word.
    Regards, Dean Harden

  2. 2 Paul french said at 4:42 am on June 25th, 2018:

    Are you aware of what is planned for the Huangpi/Hefei block?

  3. 3 Chris said at 1:14 am on June 29th, 2018:

    It’s painful to look at these photos of destruction! It’s a shame they won’t, at least, preserve some of the architectural elements. They could, at a minimum, be re-purposed.

  4. 4 Paul French said at 5:51 am on June 29th, 2018:

    Sadly that will not happen. It’s Stalingrad – nothing will be saved


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