The Old City never formed part of the International Settlement and was known by the foreigners who lived in Shanghai, somewhat contemptuously, as the Chinese City . Based on the original walled city of Shanghai which dated back to the eleventh century, the area was reserved in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as a ghetto for vast numbers of Chinese who lived packed in conditions of appalling squalor, while the foreigners carved out their living space all around them. Today it still covers an oval-shaped area of about four square kilometres, circumscribed by Renmin Lu (to the north) and Zhonghua Lu (to the south) and coming to within a couple of hundred metres of the southern Bund on its northeastern side. In modern times it has been slashed down the middle by the main north-south artery, Henan Lu. The easiest approach from Nanjing Dong Lu is to walk due south along Henan Lu or Sichuan Lu.

 

Tree-lined ring roads had already replaced the original walls and moats as early as 1912, and sanitation has obviously improved vastly since the last century, but to cross the boundaries into the Old City is still to enter a different world. The twisting alleyways are a haven of free enterprise, bursting with makeshift markets selling fish, vegetables, cheap trinkets, clothing and the appetizing smells of cooking food. Two of Shanghai's best antique markets are also located in or near the Old City. Ironically, for a tourist entering this area, the feeling is indeed a little like entering a Chinatown in a Western city.

The centre of activity today is an area known locally as Chenghuang Miao (after a local temple) surrounding the two most famous and crowded tourist sights in the whole city, the Yu Yuan and the Huxinting Tea House, both located right in the middle of a new, touristy bazaar which caters to the rapidly swelling numbers of Chinese tourists who pour into the area. "Antiques", scrolls and various kitschy souvenirs feature prominently, and there are also lots of good places to eat dian xin, Shanghai dim sum, some more reasonable than others. The Yu Yuan (Jade Garden; daily 8.30am-5pm; ¥15) is a classical Chinese garden featuring pools, walkways, bridges and rockeries, created in the sixteenth century by a high official in the imperial court in honour of his father. Despite fluctuating fortunes, the garden has surprisingly survived the passage of the centuries. It was spared from its greatest crisis - the Cultural Revolution - apparently because the anti-imperialist "Little Sword Society" had used it as their headquarters in 1853 during the Taiping Uprising. Garden connoisseurs today will appreciate the whitewashed walls topped by undulating dragons made of tiles, and the huge, craggy and indented rock in front of the Yuhua Tang (Hall of Jade Magnificence). During Lantern Festival, on the fifteenth day of the traditional New Year, 10,000 lanterns (and an even larger number of spectators) brighten up the garden. The Yu Yuan is not more impressive than the gardens of nearby Suzhou, but given that it pre-dates the relics of the International Settlement by some three centuries, the Shanghainese are understandably proud of it.

After visiting the garden, you can step into the delightful Huxinting (Heart of Lake Pavilion; downstairs daily 5.30-noon & 1.30-5pm; upstairs daily 8.30am-5pm & 8.30-10pm), where practically every visitor who has ever been to Shanghai, including the Queen of England, has dropped in for tea. The tea house is reached across a zigzag bridge spanning a small ornamental lake, just across from the entrance to Yu Yuan. In the downstairs section, you buy a ticket for ¥10 and can then enjoy endless refills while watching the elderly locals, who sit for hours amid the wood panelling, playing cards, chatting, or dozing to the traditional music of a venerable Chinese orchestra that occasionally plays here. Upstairs, during the daytime the cost is ¥25, but you get air conditioning and quails' eggs with your tea, while in the evening (¥65), the waitresses perform traditional tea ceremonies wearing qipao, the long tight silk dresses with high slits up the sides. Whenever you come, though, the tea is excellent and the china used is the dark and distinctive Yixing ware.

If you're in Chenghuang Miao early on Sunday morning (8-11am is the best time though trade continues to mid-afternoon), you can visit a great Sunday market on Fuyu Lu, the small street running east to west along the northern edge of Yu Yuan. The market has a very raw, entrepreneurial feel about it; all sorts of curios and antiques - some real, some not - ranging from jade trinkets to Little Red Books can be found here, though you'll have to bargain fiercely if you want to buy. Just outside the Old City in a small alley called Dongtai Lu leading west off Xizang Nan Lu, is the largest permanent antique market in Shanghai (daily 10am-4pm), and possibly in all China. Even if you're not interested in buying, this is a fascinating area to walk around. The range is vast, covering every era of Chinese history, from old Buddhas, coins, vases and teapots, to mah-jongg sets, renovated furniture and Cultural Revolution badges. Some of the antiques are clearly fakes, but many of the traders are serious, respectable people with reputations to defend.

Several blocks west of the antique market, on the corners of Daji Lu and Fangxie Lu, stand the grounds of the former Hunan (or South Shanghai) Stadium . On May 7, 1919, 20,000 people gathered to join the May 4th Tian'anmen Square movement against the terms of the Peace Conference at Versailles. Shanghai subsequently became the centre of the May Fourth Movement 's demonstrations.