The Old Shanghai A–Z

This richly anecdotal guide to every street in Shanghai details many landmarks and stories associated with its best known avenues. A definitive index to the street names of Shanghai, some of which have disappeared or been removed, allows historians, researchers, tourists and the just plain curious to navigate the city in its pre-1949 incarnation, through the former International Settlement, French Concession, and External Roads Area with a detailed map and alphabetical entry for every road.

The book is lavishly illustrated with old advertising, images and postcards of the streets and businesses, the bars and nightclubs, the people and characters of old Shanghai bringing alive the city in its previous heyday as the Pearl of the Orient. The Old Shanghai A–Z should become the standard reference work as well as being an easy-to-use guide for researchers and visitors looking to recapture the glamour and uniqueness of old Shanghai.

Paul French is an analyst and writer who has worked in Shanghai for many years. His books include Carl Crow—A Tough Old China Hand and Through the Looking Glass: China’s Foreign Journalists from Opium War to Mao.

“Shanghai is one of the greatest cities in the world to walk, wander, and wonder. In this book, Paul French brings the streets of the old city to life. Simply put, there is nothing on the market to compete with this book. Readers can get an instant historical reference to wherever they find themselves in ‘Old Shanghai.’” —Peter Hibbard, author of The Bund Shanghai

“Shanghai, this electric and lurid city, more exciting than any other in the world.” —J. G. Ballard, Empire of the Sun

“Years ago a speck was torn away from the mystery of China and became Shanghai. A distorted mirror of problems that beset the world today, it grew into a refuge for people who wished to live between the lines of laws and customs—a modern tower of Babel.” —Josef von Sternberg, director of Shanghai Express & The Shanghai Gesture

“The tired or lustful businessman will find here everything to gratify his desires in Shanghai.” —WH Auden & Christopher Isherwood, Journey to a War

“Shanghai . . . life itself, nothing more intensely living can be imagined.” —Aldous Huxley