Shanghai’s old city wall, 4.8 kilometers long is originally built with six land gates and four water gates in Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). It was pulled down in 1912, after standing for more than 300 years with a total of 10 land gates in the end. Only 50 meters remain today, including what’s left of Old West Gate, or Lao Xi Men.

Shanghai Daily takes a walking tour of the old boundaries of the city wall, represented by Renmin Road in the north and Zhonghua Road in the south, to get a glimpse of old Shanghai. The journey starts at Lao Xi Men, which is easily reached by Metro Line 8. Little remains of the old gate, except Dajing Pavilion, a little north of the gate.

At the back of Lao Xi Men inside the old city area is Yifeng Alley. The existence of this century-old lane is a living testament to the history of old city wall as its name comes from the gate’s old name — Yifeng. It means the arrival of the phoenix in Chinese.

Walking north along Renmin Road, we reach its intersection with Henan Road S., site of long-gone Lao Bei Men, the Old North Gate.

In the 1860s, before a second nearby gate was opened, thousands of people squeezed through Lao Bei Men to enter the city. Many fights broke out whenever another new gate near Lao Bei Men wasn’t opened. Today there’s a broad road and little congestion.

Xin Dong Men or New East Gate was east of Fuyou Road. The gate was also known as Fuyou Gate. The name, meaning blessing in Chinese, was derived from the nearby Tianhou Palace in the old city. Tianhou, or Goddess of Heaven, refers to Mazu, the Chinese goddess of the sea who is said to guide lost ships by holding a red lantern.

Up until the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), Mazu was honored with a long surname of 62 Chinese characters. Among them are Fu You Zhong Sheng, meaning blessing all flesh.

A short walk away was Xiao Dong Men or Little East Gate, which was one of the first city gates, at the intersection of Renmin Road and Fangbang Road M, which is also called Shanghai Old Street.

Adjacent to Yuyuan Garden and the City God Temple (Cheng Huang Miao), Shanghai Old Street is lined with small shops and roadside souvenir stalls. The crowded and tourist-oriented street also is known for the tempting aromas from many food stalls located at the entrance.

You can continue walking along Renmin Road and easily find your way to our next important stop, Xiao Nan Men or Little South Gate. The area is filled with historical sites and old neighborhoods where people seem to still live much the way they lived a long time ago.

The bell tower at 581 Zhonghua Road was used for signaling during the Revolution of 1911 led by Sun Yat-sen and is now protected heritage architecture.

Ziyuan Building at 113 Qiaojia Road is a two-story, Western-style building once owned by Wang Yiting, president of the Shanghai General Chamber of Commerce, who received Albert Einstein and his wife there in 1922.

The former residence of Xu Guangqi (1562-1633), a famous mathematician and scholar in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), sits at 234 Qiaojia Rd. Xu is a big name in Shanghai, not only because he is among the few pioneers who embraced Western science and technology at that time, but also because most of today’s Xujiahui, a commercial center in Xuhui District, was once his family’s ancestral land.

The residence, the only Ming mansion remaining in the old city, is widely known as Jiu Jian Lou, or Mansion of Nine Rooms, since each of the two stories houses nine rooms. Today, it has only seven rooms on each floor and is owned by local citizens.

A dozen valuable ancient buildings and residences are crowded along a couple of hundred meters on Qiaojia Road and in the adjacent neighborhood of maze-like lanes.

On neighboring Xundao Street, there are lanes leading on the left side. Look for Tiandeng Lane, make a turn there and walk down it. You will see the Shuyin Building at No. 77. The 2,000-square-meter mansion was built during the Qianlong Emperor’s reign (1735–1796) in the Qing Dynasty. As the only large-scale residential complex from the Qing Dynasty preserved in the city, it used to be one of the three great ancient libraries in southern China, along with Tianyi Pavilion in Ningbo, and Jiaye Pavilion in Nanxun, both located in Zhejiang Province.

Today, the Shuyin Building is a private residence that isn’t open to the public, and it is in a deteriorated condition. But visitors can still find traces of its former grandeur from outside.

The last gate of the journey is Xiao Xi Men or Little West Gate, which was built later in 1910 at today’s intersection of Shangwen and Zhonghua roads. A mixed-style residential community named Longmencun at 133 Shangwen Road is worth a visit. The complex is a miniature gallery of local residences from the 1920s and 30s, boasting 76 buildings in various styles like shikumen or stone-gate construction, “newer-style” lilong buildings that are attached buildings connected by a lane, and detached Spanish, Scottish, French and baroque villas. The area has the longest alley in Shanghai, and the predecessor of today’s Shanghai Middle School.

Nearby at 215 Wenmiao Road is the only Confucian temple in the city. The area used to be known for its wholesale book market, but the market has been relocated to Daning Road in Zhabei District.

Turning back on Zhonghua Road, we reach the end of Yifeng Alley, where we started.