Disappearing lifestyle

The Bund is home to magnificent Western-style architecture, but in areas closer to the Old Town there are unique alleyways housing local life.

Often adapted to the fishing industry, this lifestyle is disappearing.

From Dongmen Road walk toward the Bund and turn down Waixiangua Road, a little street on the right. Literally translated as "salty melon street," rumor has it the name came from people selling wares from the sea.

Sea products are still sold here, with seaweed spread out to dry on the street, and fish nets spread out to dry on the balconies. But customers are few and far between.

Behind Waixiangua Road are sizable pockets of old-style communal alleyways. These are in the process of being demolished and most residents have moved out.

But the buildings are still standing, albeit in eerie silence. It's a great place to explore early-style shikumen (stone-gated) houses.

Behind neon lights

The glitzy lights of Nanjing Road Pedestrian Mall belie its proximity to humbler parts of town. But there are interesting side streets to be found if you dig, like Shitan Lane which starts on Beijing Road E.

Opposite the intersection between Beijing Road E. and Fujian Road M., the tiny lane offers a wealth of local life and a surprise at the end. Unlike lilong - residential compounds built by foreigners for Chinese from the mid-1800s onwards - the buildings here were built after liberation.

Winding between low-rise apartments, the street contains tiny restaurants, people playing mahjong, selling wares and patches, and extensive bamboo scaffolding.

At the end you'll find a treat - the Hong Miao Gallery, a free art gallery that used to be an ancient temple. With bright red walls, its heyday was in the 1930s. After 1949 it went through a series of uses from being sealed for 10 years to a local administrative center.

After enjoying the quietness of the gallery step back into modern Shanghai as Nanjing Road E. is just on the other side.

Beijing Road is now a bustling area selling electronic parts, but it contains pockets of early-style lilong built around 1900. Crowded and extremely narrow, these are very much still lived in and well preserved. Look for No. 756 and No. 803 on Beijing Road.