Yujing Port, Hongkou Port and Shajing Port intersect and wind here, and it is also the only area in the central city of Shanghai that has preserved a complete water system pattern, as well as 8 well-preserved bridges and a large number of unique Shikumen buildings. Strolling here, it seems to make people return to the 20s and 30s of the last century, the quiet river, the silent building, seems to tell its centuries of vicissitudes and changes... From Aisi Children's Park in the north, Kowloon Road in the west, Zhoujiazui Road in the south, and The Shanghai Music Valley (SMV) area on Hailun Road in the east, it is known as "Magic Water Town". There is the tranquility of Jiangnan Water Town, and there is also a heavy historical and cultural precipitation.
Picture description: 1913 Old Foreign Firm Hongxin / Photo (the same below)
1933 Old Mill
No. 611 Liyang Road, Hongkou District
Pushing open the window on the top floor of the Kowloon Hotel, there is a building with a huge umbrella on the top that looks like an open umbrella, and the unique shape shines and shines under the night.
In 1933, the old farm was originally a slaughterhouse for the Shanghai Ministry of Works. In 1931, the Ministry of Works purchased land on Shajing Road in Hongkou, and in November 1933, a modern Roman Basilica-style slaughterhouse with an outer circle and a square structure was completed and put into use. In the slaughterhouse, many characteristic styles of buildings such as "beamless building cover", "umbrella column", "covered bridge", "spiral ladder" and "cattle road" were integrated, which was the largest and most modern slaughterhouse in the Far East at that time, and there were only 3 slaughterhouses of this scale in the world, and only Shanghai was well preserved. In 1933, Laochangfang became a highly representative geographical indication and cultural landmark in the evolution of Shanghai's city, and was listed as a national key cultural relics protection unit in 2020.
The design of the slaughterhouse of the Ministry of Works bureau is unique, the entire building has no beam cover, and more than 300 wide umbrella-shaped columns are evenly distributed in the perimeter of the building square, independently supporting the majestic building. The octagonal and quadrilateral umbrella-shaped column cap is one of the most important features of the building, the octagonal umbrella-shaped column cap is mainly distributed on the west side of the building's perimeter, and the square umbrella-shaped column cap is distributed in other parts of the periphery. The covered bridge space is one of the most characteristic features of the building, the outer corridor bridge space contains 4 floors of porch and 26 interconnected diagonal bridges, which is a place for Shanghai tourists and photography enthusiasts to punch cards.
At the beginning of this century, after the construction of the slaughterhouse of the Ministry of Works was discovered, the relevant departments and units repaired the building building, the ground, the external wall, the inner wall, the covered bridge, the umbrella column, the roof, the electrical device, etc., demolished the two additional covered bridges in the later period, and reassembled the damaged parts of the original 26 covered bridges. The renovated 1933 old square has international food shopping, theatrical music performances, theme carnival parties, of which the "Sky Stage" with an area of more than 1500 square meters has successfully hosted ferrari F1 parties, Paris art and design exhibitions, "Blueberry Night" Asian premiere party and many other important events. The Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center also signed a long-term performance agreement with the 1933 Old Theater to turn the 1933 Aerial Theater into a performing arts center in northern Shanghai. As the earliest classic built in the Music Valley in 1933, the Old Square has become a landmark building in Shanghai.
In 1933, the old square was destroyed by the war, and although it was closed several times, the building itself was miraculously preserved. History has made this building a piece of "jade" in the dust; history has made this jade butterfly reborn and polished into a piece of noble jade.
Pictured: Riverside Old Foreign Shop
Dream Theater
No. 267 East Jiaxing Road, Hongkou District
Around the Xingmeng Theater, young beautiful girls come to punch every day, and here a Localized Chinese idol group was born, which is a fashion place for young people. Since the large Chinese idol group SNH48 settled its exclusive performance base in the Dream Theater, it has become a new landmark of China's new generation of idol culture.
The Xingmeng Theater, formerly known as Jiaxing Film Theater, was built in the 1930s as the "Paradise Theater", which is an old building with modern historical and cultural heritage value. Designed by the famous British Atkinson & Dallas Architects and invested by the British Commercial And Guangdong Real Estate Company, it is one of the earliest cinemas in Shanghai, and was renamed "Jiaxing Film Theater" in March 1970. Around 2010, Hongkou District made a protective renovation of the old cinema and restored its performance function. In August 2013, Jiaxing Film Theater was renamed Xingmeng Theater. Now, there are many SNH48 fans around the theater every day, and even the wonton shop here has become an Internet celebrity shop, and some photography enthusiasts often squat here to capture their ideal picture.
In the book "Urban Imagery", the five elements of urban imagery are summarized: roads, boundaries, areas, nodes, and markers. A place with high readability and imagery needs to be reinforced and echoed by different elements. The Dream Theater on the cross street can see the smooth flow of people; the appropriate street scale and the sense of spatial enclosure formed by the building façade have created convenience for the crowd to stop and gather; various activities and performances have come to the street, extending the inherent space of the theater... Queuing, hanging out, talking, buying and selling, picking up and dropping off cars, taking pictures, all of this can happen here unexpectedly. On Jiaxing Road, the theater is no longer the theater itself, but forms a physical environment together with the surrounding blocks. As a historical building, a relatively urban place, many foreigners and foreigners like to come here and feel that "this is what Shanghai looks like". A few foreigners who came together to visit the Xingmeng Theater and the surrounding area said with emotion: "There is no better place to feel Shanghai than Jiaxing Road." ”
Photo: TriangleLand Art Park
Peninsula Bay Fashion Culture creative industry park
No. 735 Liyang Road, Hongkou District
Peninsula Bay Fashion Culture and Creative Industry Park is a modern fashion culture and creative industry park integrating music creation, cultural display, trend design, media interaction and bar leisure. Here, named after the peninsula surrounded by water on three sides, a cup of coffee, a guitar, basking in the sun on a roof surrounded by greenery, looking out over the winding river, people can't help but want to hum a song. The century-old Harbin Road Bridge No. 1, Bridge No. 2 and Liyang Road Bridge, as well as an old Shikumen neighborhood, give Peninsula Bay a different kind of softness and leisureliness.
The Harbin Building in Peninsula Bay was built in 1929 as a Huifang sawmill company owned by an American businessman, which was later mixed by various forces due to the evacuation of American businessmen in World War II. Before 1942, this area was known as the "Japanese Concession" and "Little Tokyo" because of the large number of Japanese people living in the area, and during World War II, it was also a temporary refuge for Jewish refugees in Shanghai. After liberation, the relevant departments rectified and repaired it and became a "new people's art field", which became a new landmark and new landscape in Shanghai at that time.
When the Peninsula Bay Industrial Park was renovated, the typical American architectural style was preserved, and the cultural accumulation of many years was integrated with the ubiquitous musical elements. Here, with the red brick walls as the iconic element, the river landscape and the restaurants on the street outside the park create a musical pier that makes you feel like you are on the streets of Venice. The dappled staircase handrails and the old building plaques have changed dramatically; the pipes on the walls to collect rainwater have creatively formed musical notes that can collect rainwater and make beautiful music, the giant lira sculpture in front of the red wall will play a beautiful music as visitors walk by, and the sky garden can overlook a musical score on the roof... Music has become a flowing building here, and the architecture has solidified the music, so that people in the downtown can find a sense of tranquility and calmness here, and become a harbor for the soul to "go home".
The National Music Industry Base, 1933 Old Field Square, Star Dream Theater, Peninsula Bay Fashion Culture and Creative Industry Park, TriangleLand Art Park, Music Valley Exhibition and Experience Center, 1913 Old Foreign Firm, etc. constitute the Shanghai Music Valley Scenic Area. It is the epitome of the century-old development and changes of Hongkou District, and also the product and witness of various cultural exchanges and dialogues in shanghai's modern city. In the future, it will also become an important area for urban tourism in Shanghai.
Xinmin Evening News reporter Yuan Wei special correspondent Long Gang