5/23/24: Shanghai's Old City, Jewish Refugees Museum & the Bund at Night!

After last evening's stroll on Nanjing St, one of Shanghai's busiest streets, Steven and I were excited to explore the sights in the Old City. According to one tour book we followed, the district was based on Shanghai's original walled city which dates to the 11th century.  During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, it was reserved for the large numbers of Chinese who lived in abject poverty while foreigners chose to live in the International Settlement, areas around the four square kilometer area condescendingly referred to by the foreigners as the Chinese City. Another tour guide said the wall dated to 1553 when it was built to defend against Japanese pirates and that the Chinese were able to move out of the walled city in 1854 and into the foreign concessions.

Attempts to flag down a taxi in the street to take us to Daijing Pavilion in the Old City failed so we walked to a nearby taxi stand. Even though we had the location written in Mandarin, several drivers rebuffed us - possibly because the distance was too short, we didn't know. Finally, one agreed and took us past some buildings of architectural interest. 

With a population of about 25 to 30 million people depending on what areas are counted, Shanghai is the world's third most populated city after Chongqing, also in China, and Tokyo. That was why coming across the Shanghai Greenway in the middle of the city on our way to the Pavilion was such a treat. 

Except for this one 40-meter-long piece, most of the walled city was torn down in 1912. The Pavilion was a relatively new structure built over the last surviving slice of the Ming dynasty wall. Possibly because of the high vegetation or because we didn't know where to look, we weren't able to spot the names on the wall of two Chinese emperors who commissioned the wall as protection against the pirates. 

The Pavilion's small exhibition on the Old City's history was unfortunately closed.

Next door was the Taoist Baiyunguan Temple also known as the Jade Emperor Palace. Though it was undergoing extensive renovations, we were welcome to enter.

In the main hall, there was a large effigy of a judgemental-looking Jade Emperor, the Taoist God and the top of the Four Heavenly Ministers, also called the Supreme Jade Emperor, the Respected Supreme God, master of the heaven, king of all kinds of deities, and lord of heavenly sages. He also controls everything and everyone as well as all good and evil. What a heavy load to carry!

Behind some plastic on the side of the hall, we peeked at some striking figures of Taoist Immortals.

I daresay you won't soon forget the image of the man with arms coming out of his eyes!

We'd expected neighboring Daijing Lu (street) to be an interesting ramshackle street with cured meat, plucked ducks, and laundry all hanging from the same lines and seeing lots of small mom-and-pop restaurants, complete with crabs and shrimp crawling around in plastic tubs outside. You can therefore imagine our shock when there was no shabby street, no evidence of the Old City, but instead a very modernized area with oodles of upscale shops like Vera Wang, etc. 

Since being dropped off by the taxi driver in the Old City, there was again, like the night before, a significant police presence everywhere we walked. Steven and I didn't know whether it was because of the number of high-end condos we'd seen or what was the reason. 

It seemed that history was being erased before our eyes as construction cranes were everywhere in the name of progress. 

Was this shell of a building slated to come down, too?

As we walked toward the classical Chinese Yu Gardens, however, we did spot some rundown areas but wondered if they would still be there in another year or two. 

We stopped first at Chenxiangge Nunnery, described as one of Shanghai's more active temples although it was almost empty when we popped in. The more than 400-year-old Nunnery, regarded as one of the most recognized nunneries in China, was listed in 1959 as one of the protected cultural relics in Shanghai, by the State Council as the national key nunnery of Buddhism in 1983, and was declared a national protected cultural relic in 1996. The nunnery was also the location of the Shanghai Buddhist College for nuns. 

The guardians protected the entrance just as they did in Japanese temples.

I read that the temple's few dozen nuns gathered in the Daxiongbao Hall to pray and chant in front of the Sakyamuni Buddha but the nuns lived in privacy. The Buddha's gilded image and his 384 disciples were created by a still-living craftsman. 

People hoping for good health, good wishes, etc, purchased these red ties. 

Small prayer rooms were located on each side of the main hall. 

The nine ancient bells dated from the Ming Dynasty.

A few steps away was the snazzy Yu Bazaar ...

... and finally, Yu Gardens. They were created in the 16th century by a high-ranking official in the Imperial Court in honor of his father. The gardens were only spared during the Cultural Revolution because the anti-imperialist Small Sword Society had used them as their headquarters during the Taiping Uprising in 1853.

Shanghaiese are proud of their gardens even though they predate the city by 300 years. During the city's Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the traditional New Year, a large number of spectators gather to view the gardens lit by thousands of lanterns. 

The whitewashed Cuixiu Hall or Hall of Gathering Grace was built in appreciation of the imposing 12m-high rockery as Chinese gardens are intended to be miniature landscapes. Thus, the rockery was akin to a mini Himalayas!

Unlike the generally far more reserved people we encountered in Japan, several Chinese people came up to ask in excellent English where we were from as there weren't a lot of Westerners around.

The Yi Fang Boathouse was so named because, in classical Chinese gardens, the word fang refers to a building in the shape of a boat. Yi means "also" so the building was also a boathouse. 

The undulating Dragon Wall caught our attention as did the roof warrior figures atop a roof nearby.

The He Xu Hall was aptly named because the word he xu translates to warm sunshine and the hall was surrounded on all four sides by windows that let in abundant light. The hall faced another rockery and a pond which made it cool in the summer and warm in the winter. The hall's elegant furniture was made from the roots of the banyan tree. 

Yu Hua Hall was the study that belonged to Yu Gardens' founder, Pan Yunduan. Displayed in the room were four treasures: ink, a stick, a writing brush, and paper, as well as Ming-era furniture.

Outside the study was his family's private theater so they didn't ever have to leave the compound to attend performances and could bring them here instead. 

At the end of Yu Garden was another Taoist temple, the City God Temple. Built during the early part of the Ming Dynasty but destroyed by fire in 1924, the very popular temple was rebuilt two years later. 

If you're not a fan of all things gold, City God wouldn't be for you!

Yikes - another freaky statue!

After the preponderance of male statues in Japanese temples and shrines, it was refreshing to see a female figure being honored at City God.

More crusading warriors atop the roof but these had flags raised and arrows drawn.

Leaving the temple, we walked along almost deserted streets and past more closed-up buildings wondering how long these buildings might also face the chopping block and Old City would become just a distant memory. In the distance, skyscrapers rose over the shabby streets like a mirage.

Perhaps the former entrance gate to the Old City?

Ahead was the avante-garde architecture of the district of Pudong, Shanghai's premier destination for investors and innovators, and world-class business parks. 

Friendly staff at a posh hotel kindly ordered a taxi for us to visit the Jewish Refugees Museum located well north of the city on the site of the old Ohel Moishe Synagogue. Before researching this trip to mostly Japan and China, Steven and I hadn't realized the important role Shanghai played in welcoming more than 20,000 Jews from Western Europe during WW II when so many countries were turning Jews away. We also hadn't known that Sephardic Jews who had fled the Middle East in the 19th century were among the founders of international Shanghai, accumulating vast fortunes and empires. 

The synagogue was built in 1927 by the Russian Jewish community and named after their community leader, Moshe Greenberg. It became a gathering place during the war for Jewish refugees as well as a spiritual center to some degree. It is now one of just two synagogues left in the city. 

It comes as no surprise that after Hitler rose to power in 1933 the state apparatus in Nazi Germany persecuted Jews as a result of their anti-Semitic, ethnic cleansing beliefs. Jews were systematically shunned and murdered in Germany and other European countries annexed by the Nazis. Though European Jews tried to escape from Nazi death threats, most countries tragically refused to open their borders to Jews by 1938. 

Dr. Ho Feng-shan served as the Consul General of the Republic of China in Vienna from 1918 to 1940. When Germany annexed Austria in March of 1938, about 180,000 Jews faced imminent Nazi persecution. If they were to survive, their only recourse was to leave their homeland but it was extremely difficult for Jews to obtain visas from any of the consulates in Vienna. Feng-shan and a colleague, however, managed to issue visas to about 2,000 Jews who sought haven in Shanghai and elsewhere. The visas were known as "visas for life." In 2021, he was posthumously awarded the title of "Righteous Among Nations" by the Jewish organization Vad Vashem. The honor describes people who made an effort to assist victims, including Jews, who were being exterminated by Nazi Germany during the Holocaust. 

Click on the map to make it bigger so you can more easily look at the main escape routes Jews found to reach Shanghai.

Austrian Jewish refugees arriving in Shanghai:

According to incomplete statistics, approximately 20,000 European Jews arrived in Shanghai between 1933 and 1941. The city's Jewish community and international aid organizations joined forces to help settle the homeless and stateless refugees. Most initially lived in the International Settlement and in Hongkou, a district of Shanghai with lower living costs.

Some were forced to live in packed temporary shelters where the number per room ranged from 30 to 50 and, in the worst cases, from 100 to 200 per room. I found this statement by a Jewish refugee in Shanghai to be a reality check: "Things were not perfect in Shanghai at that time. But it provided us Jewish refugees with a haven. It saved our lives. This is most important of all." 

Jews arriving after 1938 in Shanghai found it hard to find any formal job due to the war and the city's economic recession. Some made ends meet by repairing appliances and selling newspapers while others ran small businesses like pharmacies, grocery stores, tailors, barber shops, and milliners. 

Some opened European-style cafes, delis, nightclubs, and bakeries in an area in Hongkou that became known as Little Vienna. 

When Japan invaded China as part of the Second Sino-Japanese War that started in 1937 and ended in 1945, the Japanese Imperial Army, in an alliance with Germany, issued a proclamation ordering all stateless refugees who had arrived since 1937 to be relocated to a designated area in Hongkou because of "military necessity." The Jewish community was in an uproar wondering what lay ahead of that convenient expression. What did it really mean and how strong was Germany's power over Japan? Where would this lead and what would be done next?

The restricted sector for stateless refugees was called the Designated Area and the Shanghai Ghetto by some refugees. Many Jews lost their homes and businesses after being forced to move into the Designated Area. Though they encountered tremendous hardships and bitter years in the Designated Area, they managed to survive and refugees from different countries and social classes formed a tight Jewish solidarity that helped those in trouble and which continued after the war. I don't know whether this was propaganda on the part of the museum but we read that the refugees experienced "the kindness and generosity of their Chinese neighbors who stood with them during those dreadful days."

After the Japanese fully occupied Shanghai and the city was in its "isolated island period," Jewish refugees were only able to communicate with their relatives in Europe through Red Cross telegrams. They were limited to 25 words and the telegrams could take as long as several months to be received. 

The refugees in Shanghai knew in May of 1945 that Hitler was dead, that Germany had surrendered, and that liberation was coming. Sadly, American planes mistakenly bombed the Designated Area in July, killing 250 people, 17 of whom were Jews. When Japan surrendered on August 15th, 1945, the war was over and both the Chinese and the Jewish refugees celebrated the victory. It was only when Chinese and Allied troops entered Shanghai, that the Jews learned of the horrific Nazi death camps and that so many of their relatives had been murdered. 

After the war: Jewish refugees began to plan their future as soon as the war ended. Though hugely grateful to the city and residents of Shanghai for offering them refuge from Nazi persecution, the refugees had regarded the city as a temporary home due to differences in language, lifestyle, and culture. 

It is impossible to know the exact number of Jewish refugees who left Shanghai after the war but it is estimated from incomplete statistics and relevant documents that about 22,000 to 24,000 left between 1945 and 1951. The US and Canada were their first choices, followed by Argentina and Brazil, then Australia and New Zealand, and then Palestine with a few emigrating to South Africa. Many refugees had participated in Zionist movements in Shanghai and therefore chose to resettle in the newly formed country of Israel after 1948. Only a small number of Jewish refugees returned to Europe. One source indicated that the largest group that returned to Germany were 295 left-wingers and their families who arrived in Berlin in August of 1947. 

In 2014, a wall of names of 18,578 Jewish refugees who made their way from Europe in the 1930s and 1940s was erected outside the Shanghai Refugees Museum. The names mostly came from a list typed by three Jewish girls employed by the occupying Japanese authorities in Shanghai to do "census taking" although they didn't know what would be done with the information. 

I can't begin to tell you how profoundly moving Steven and I found the museum. To know that China stepped up when so few countries did to rescue tens of thousands of Jews from almost certain death at the hands of the Nazis was extraordinarily heartwarming. It's a story that should be shared the world over as I can't believe we were the only ones to be unaware of such courage. 

Some people close down bars or restaurants but once again Steven and I closed down a museum. We caught another taxi to the Shanghai waterfront which had to be one of the most exciting ones in the world when its huge number of skyscrapers are lit up at night.

The Monument to the People's Heroes: 

If it hadn't been so late, we could have walked for hours on the boardwalk along the Huangpu River.

The Russian Consulate General building:

Astor House Hotel, Shanghai's first, was completed in 1921 in the English neoclassical style. It hosted Albert Einstein and Charlie Chaplin among other notable guests. So much of the architecture coming in from the airport the night before had appeared to be pretty boring but that sentiment quickly evaporated after seeing buildings like the consulate, the hotel, and the skyline!

When the Garden Bridge was completed in December 1907, it became the first long-span bridge in the city. It was later renamed Waibaidu Bridge. 

On the other side of the bridge, the former British Public Gardens were now the Huangpu Park.

The embankment known as the Bund, with its distinguished European architecture, lined the low bow of the Huangpu River and faced the glittering skyscrapers across the water in Pudong. The Bund, an Anglo-Indian term for a muddy embankment, was the financial key to Shanghai's success. During the Cultural Revolution, it was renamed Revolution Boulevard but later reverted to the Bund. 

Gazing down the Bund and its wildly impressive, mostly neoclassical buildings and profusion of Chinese flags:

I think this was the former French Bank of Indochina at number 29.

At number 23, the skinny Bank of China had a strong Art Deco twist and a traditional Chinese roof thanks to a Chinese architect. It was the tallest building in the city when it was completed in 1937. 

At the corner of the Bund and Nanjing, the street we'd walked along the previous night, was the Peace Hotel, formerly the Cathay. When the hotel opened in 1929, it became the place to stay in Shanghai and welcomed playwright Noel Coward who wrote Private Lives there. The highly regarded Peace Hotel Jazz Band serenades guests!

The former Bank of Taiwan at number 16 was now the China Merchants Bank as one could guess from the large flag flying proudly atop the roof.

At number 13 was the Customs House that dated to 1927. Formerly the Peace Preservation Corps operated out of a room there. A plaque on the wall outside shows Shanghainese waving banners that said, " Welcome People's Liberation Army" and " 10,000 Years for the Chinese Communist Party."

We had to smile when we read that Big Ching, not Big Ben, was the name given to the clock that rang every quarter hour until the bell was silenced during the Cultural Revolution. Instead, the area's residents heard propaganda broadcasts and the Mao anthem!

Next door at number 12 was the extravagant former headquarters of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank. It and the Peace Hotel were probably the most famous buildings on the Bund. The bank was opened in June 1923 by Sir Ronald Macleay, the minister to China. If we'd had a chance to enter the building, we would have seen the original mosaic floor and apparently a stunning octagonal ceiling with panels depicting the financial capitals of Tokyo, London, Calcutta, New York, Paris, Bangkok, Hong Kong, and Shanghai. 

Atop a pole was the Communist red star. 

The former China Merchants Steam Navigation Company at number 7 was renamed the Bangkok Bank.

The Bund’s Charging Bull has become a popular attraction on Shanghai’s iconic Bund waterfront especially since it's regarded as giving the middle finger to the West and the US in particular! If you've seen the original Wall Street Bull, you'll recognize the similarity as it was created by the same artist. This version, though, was “redder, younger and stronger,” according to Arturo Di Modica. When it was unveiled on May 15, 2010, just after the global financial crisis, it was as if to boast that China was immune to the economic woes of the rest of the world!

You could tell the German design in the Gothic windows and arches of the former German-Chinese Bank located at number 6.

The Shanghai Gallery of Art was located at Three on the Bund, one of the city's most celebrated addresses as luxurious residences, bars, and restaurants have also found a home there. 

Built in 1902, the former Shanghai Club at number 2 had the world's longest bar and was the most exclusive colonial venue. It is now the Waldorf Astoria and its bar has been resurrected. 

Moments later, the Bund came alive with glittering lights!

We hurriedly retraced our steps along the waterfront to see Pudong's skyscrapers ablaze with lights as if it were New Year's!

For some reason, we were a little pooped as we walked back to our hotel via the entire length of Nanjing!

Even though the day had been long and, at times, emotionally draining, Shanghai had more than lived up to my hopes of an extremely fun city to visit. I have raved about it to anyone who's cared to listen ever since!

Next post: Exploring more of Shanghai on, sadly, our last day in the beautiful city.

Posted on August 13th, 2024, the night before driving down to Taos, New Mexico for a quick getaway with a friend. Please make sure to take care of yourself and your loved ones and stay safe and healthy.