The Foreign Concessions of Shanghai Reminder of China's PastPrepared by Harold Stephens
Travel Correspondent for Thai Airways International
Shanghai is one of the great and exciting cities of the world. It’s dynamic and growing, a wonder of our modern age. This is what travellers see when they go there, an ultra modern city. It’s so overpowering that it’s breathtaking.
For me, I am astounded every time I return to Shanghai. I marvel at what I see, the incredible re-facing of a city; and then I lament at what I once saw–– a Shanghai that no longer exists. I witnessed Shanghai right after the war, before the Peoples’ Republic took over. I look at it now and think of it sixty years ago. When the frazzle dazzle of new Shanghai wears off, and the Pudong has lost its glamour, I start looking for the Shanghai I once knew. Believe it or not, it’s still there––some of it, anyway.
When travellers going to Shangai ask me what they should look for, I suggest the Bund, the Old Town and the Foreign Concessions. The Bund and the Old Town are easy to explain but when it comes to the Foreign Concessions it is a little more difficult. The Concessions need a bit of explaining.
In international law, a “concession” is a territory within a country that is governed by itself. Rome, for example, gave its soldiers rewards at the end of their service which included cash or land. And in 1788, the British crown granted land to released convicts in the colony of New South Wales in Australia.
Such land grants are still held in the United States by Mexico. Take a look at the Tejon Ranch, the largest Mexican land grant in America. Granted in the 1840s, it now controls over 270,000 acres (1100 km²). Up to 12,000 head of cattle can be found grazing on the Ranch. Even larger than the Tejon ranch are the Indian reservations. Many tribal lands were set aside by the Federal government as Indian Reservations. There are 310 Indian reservations in the United States totaling some 55.7 million acres (225,420 km2) or nearly half the size of Thailand.
In the 19th century, China gave, among other things, territorial rights to numerous colonial powers, European as well as Japanese. Called “Concessions”, they reached their heyday in Shanghai.
The British and American Foreign Concessions in Shanghai were known as the Shanghai International Settlement which was established in 1854 during the Opium War. Wholly foreign-controlled, it was governed by many nationalities, including Britons, Americans, New Zealanders, Australians, Danes and Japanese. Chinese members were not permitted to join the council until 1928.
The International Settlement maintained its own police force, the Shanghai Municipal Police, and even possessed its own military reserve in the Shanghai Volunteer Corps
Over the years a large number of Chinese took up residency at the International Settlement, either to escape civil conflict or to seek better economic opportunities. The French Concession stood apart from the International Settlement,
In Shanghai there was a saying, the British, with their financial institutions and banks, taught you how to do business, but the French taught you how to live. This was obvious, of course, with the British Bund and its stately high-rise Victorian building, while with the French it was leafy neighborhoods, bohemian restaurants and street cafes. It was the old Frenchtown that marked the pulse beat of Shanghai life.
With years of being swamped by refugees, tenement development and decay have taken their toll. But there's still a generous display of tree-lined boulevards and diverse architecture throughout the former French Concession. Go wandering and don't worry about getting lost. Check out the side streets and look into the courtyards. Observe daily life in the narrow alleys.
Begin in Fuxing Park, known as French Park, which first opened on Bastille Day in 1909. By day, locals gather under the shade of century-old trees and beneath the statues of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, the heroes of communism. You can engage in a game of Chinese chess and practice tai chi with the locals. By night, step into one of the karaoke nightclubs for a few laughs.
Saunter past the old rose garden and leave through the northwest gate where you enter the exclusive neighbourhood of Sinan Lu. A must is to see where Sun Yat Sen, the founder of the Chinese republic, lived in his modest villa. You can tour the house and see the rooms where he lived and worked.
Down the road a bit is the late Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai's former residence. It too is worth a visit.
Head back up Sinan Lu and turn left into Xiangshan Lu, where you can see the grand mansions along this quiet street which were once the homes of diplomats and dignitaries. They now house multitudes of families, their once-stately lobbies in decay, but still a reminder of a bygone lifestyle.
Walk down Ruining Er Lu, turn left and keep going to the grand gates of Number 118 and enter. These are the grounds, and five 1920 villas, of a noted newspaper tycoon and his pack of racing hounds. Today the villas are occupied by a state guesthouse and several restaurants, surrounded by lawns, wooded gardens and a small lake. This was the French Concession at its best.
Another quarter that sums up Old Shanghai is the Jewish section of town. It’s interesting to note that Shanghai was the only place in the world that unconditionally offered refuge for Jews who were escaping Baghdad, then from Bolshevik Russia and later from the Nazis oppression. Although they often lived in squalid conditions in an area known as the Shanghai ghetto they found peace and security here––for a while.
Following the Opium War in the mid-1800s, a small group of Baghdad Jews fled from Iraq to India and then Shanghai. These Sephardim Jews, in particular the Sassoon, Kadoorie and Hardoon families, numbered only around 800, but they became powerful developers of real estate, hotels, banking and infrastructure that set Shanghai on track to become “Pearl of the Orient.” Many important historical landmarks were built by them, such as the Metropole Hotel on the Bund, the Old Jinjiang Hotel and Cathay Theatre on Maoming Lu, and the grandest of all, the Peace Hotel, under whose copper dome Sir Victor Sassoon lived between 1929-1947.
The second wave of Jewish immigrants to Shanghai came from Russia in the early 20th century via the trans-Siberian rail line. Many of these Russian immigrants were intellectuals, writers, doctors, musicians, men of science and business people. In time they set up restaurants, cafes, pharmacies, fur shops and haberdasheries.
Those with affluence left the ghetto and moved to the French Concession, creating a vibrant Ashkenazi community with a Jewish hospital, clubhouse and synagogues.
The last group of Jewish immigrants to Shanghai were German, Austrian and Polish refugees who made it to the Far East by train or ship to escape persecution. Amazingly, there is no other place in the world that saved so many Jewish lives during World War Two than the city of Shanghai. Approximately 20,000 Jews flooded into the city which had no visa restrictions at that time, carrying two suitcases each. During the darkest days of the war, all 'stateless refugees' were ordered by the Japanese into a two square-kilometre 'designated area' in Hongkou district. Between 1942-45 this came to be known as the Shanghai Jewish ghetto.
The stone tablet at the entrance to Huoshan Park is the city's only public monument to the area's historic role as a Jewish haven. Exit the park, cross the road and walk down Zhoushan Lu to Changyang Lu, once the main street of the ghetto.
The Bird and Flower Market on Zhoushan Lu was once a kosher food market. On the opposite side is the sombre Tilanqiao prison dating back to 1901. At 62 Changyang you come to the Ohel Moshe Synagogue, built in 1927. This former ghetto synagogue has been renovated and includes a small museum on the third floor which serves as a memorial to the Jewish refugees and their close ties with Shanghai.
For those who want to read what Shanghai was like after the war, I wrote about it in detail in my book Take China, The Last of the China Marines.
Next week we will visit an Arabian Nights city in Southeast Asia—Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERSQ. Dear Mr. Stephens. I read with interest your article about the jungles in Thailand Outdoors. I enjoyed it very much, but I am confused. What you have to say doesn’t jive with what the press has to say about the destruction of the rain forests of Asia and South America. They tell us that the wild life is disappearing. Who do we believe? Can you tell your readers? Charley Schaffer, NY
A. Dear Charley. Thailand has 48 national parks, many of which are easily accessible to the visitor. Space prohibits me from listing them all but let me tell you about one, Khao Yai National Park, the oldest national park in Thailand and by some standards the best in the world. Khao Yai has large areas of rain forest, an abundance of wild life, and over 500 km of hiking trails. The park is located in the north-east 205km from Bangkok and can be reached by bus or train. Accommodation can be arranged with the Tourism Authority of Thailand.
Harold Stephens
Bangkok
E-mail: ROH Weekly Travel (booking@inet.co.th)
Note: The article is the personal view of the writer and does not necessarily reflect the view of Thai Airways International Public Company Limited. | 
