Fangbang Road, the Old Street

In front of you is Fangbang Road, which Shanghainese call “the Old Street”. It may look as if it has always been a road, but for centuries a canal, the Fangbang, ran beneath your feet, bringing boats right up to the City God Temple. In 1913 it was filled in and turned into a street. For a long time it was also known as “the street in front of the temple”.

1The Small Swords Society

In September 1853, while the Taiping Rebellion was shaking southern China, a secret society called the Small Swords seized the walled city. Its leader, Liu Lichuan, was a Cantonese man who had worked for foreign merchants. The rebels drove out the imperial intendant, proclaimed the restoration of the Ming dynasty and set up their headquarters in a hall of the Yu Garden, a few steps from here.

They held out for about eighteen months. In early 1855, imperial troops, with French help, took the city back.

Thousands of refugees fled into the foreign concessions. Rows of terraced houses were built to shelter them, the origin of the neighbourhoods Shanghainese call lilong.

2A street of trades

The houses you see were restored in the late twentieth century in the style of old shops: herbalists, teahouses, sellers of brushes and seals. In the evening, with the lanterns lit, it is easy to imagine the bustle of the temple fairs.

3What to look for

• The vertical shop signs, in traditional style.
• The wooden balconies and grey tiled roofs.
• The width of the street: that of the old canal.