Xin Tian Di, Shanghai

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The small alley streets between buildings are beautiful. You could see different classical art sculptures against those walls. If you look up the sky, you could see the combination of old Shanghai classical building with those modern high rise buildings in Shanghai. I really like the picture of Shanghai Museum Shop with a giant high rise building next to it.

In Chinese: 新天地 (Xin Tian Di)

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Whether you are a shopping addict or a museum lover, you will love Xintiandi. This is an area where the old traditional shikumen houses, low-rise tenement buildings converted to classical modern clothing shops, restaurants, cafes, art galleries of international brands. Both locals and international tourists love to come here to have high tea, drink, and shopping.

Don't miss this place...

In Chinese: 新天地 (Xin Tian Di)

Xintiandi is a popular shopping/entertainment in Shanghai's city center.

This area was once known as the Shikumen lanes which housed Shikumen styled buildings, some of which can be traced back to the 1860's. A lot of these buildings have been demolished leading people to realize that some should be left standing for historic purposes.

In the Shanghai dialect, wrapping or bundling is called hooping, giving rise to phrases such as hooping a bucket, so doors hooped by stone bars were called stone-hooped doors, and later the name changed to Shikumen. Most of these Shikumen styled buildings have long bars of stones as doorframes and burly wooden planks as doors.

This area now houses trendy boutiques / stores, cafes, art galleries, bars, and restaurants.

I checked out the Shanghai Tang store here and bought a silk card holder then walked over to Starbucks for a Green Tea Frappacino and then La Maison Bakery for a chocolate banana tart. It was a treat to myself for enduring a long trek through old China.

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Xin Tian Di is the hottest new entertainment district in Shanghai.

Design is what makes Xin Tian Di so attractive, inside and out. Each of the two to three-story Shikumen looks unique, reflecting the exquisitely-preserved twists and turns of an evolving neighborhood, over the decades. It retains the antique walls, tiles and exterior of the Shikumen housing of old Shanghai.

On the other hand, its interior embodies a totally different world of international gallery, bars and cafes, boutiques or theme restaurants. When you walk into Xin Tian Di, you will get the taste both of Shanghai in the 1920's and the sonic modern lifestyle of urbanites of the 21st century.

Shanghai Xin Tian Di has become the best place for tourists to appreciate the history and modern life of the city, and is also a meeting place for local citizens and foreign visitors.

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Xin Tian Di, the old and refurbished transformed into a modern area near Puxi buisiness district. There are plenty of shops, restsuarants and bars ( both Chinese & Western ) to check out along with the local park. And i see i am not the first VT member to explore this area...lol

Old/traditional houses are at the north part of Xin Tian Di. Compared to the south modern part, I like here much better. All the houses here are mostly renovated into pubs, restaurants and gift shops. Most of them have outdoor seating area.

My favorite restaurant here is TMSK. The whole place is decorated by color glasses. Don't forget to visit their restroom as well. The sink over there, to me, is a stunning piece of art work!!

However, it is a pricey area tho!

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Xintiandi is a shopping, eating and entertainment area of the former French Concession area of Shanghai. It is composed of an area of restored traditional shikumen ("stone gate") houses on narrow alleys, a modern shopping mall with a cinema complex, and some adjoining houses which now serve as book stores, cafes and restaurants. Most of the cafes and restaurants feature both indoor and outdoor seating. Xintiandi has an active nightlife on weekdays as well as weekends, though romantic settings are more common than loud music and dance places.

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This excellent museum recreates what traditional life would've been like in a 10-room Shanghai Shikumen townhouse. The rooms have been well furnished with furniture that would've been used in such a house in the 1920s and 30s.

Open: 10.30am-10.30pm Sun-Thur, 11am-11pm Fri & Sat. Admission: Y20.
No. 25, Lane 181, Taicang Rd