The French Concession

I pass the Normandie Apartments or Wukang Mansion as it’s called now from my day to work everyday,
they redid the outside recently and now also gave the interior a facelift.
Being one of my favorite old french concession buildings, I just thought this requires a post.
And I took some pictures on my day home yesterday for y’all to  see.

This SimpleViewer [...]

 
One of the first stories of old Shanghai that we explored was Silas Hardoon Shanghai’s prominent Real Estate Tycoon of the early 20th Century.
The Sassoons as Hardoon are both Iraqi Jews that made their way to Bombay (Mumbai) and later found fortunes in China.
The Sassoons were probably the wealthiest family in India during their time [...]

László Hudec who was also known as Ladislav Hudec (his hungarian name is spelled Hugyecz) is probably “the” person who shaped Shanghai the way we know it today.
And along with Hardoon was another significant young man that made his fortune in the city.
The young architects life is a story of ambition, will, hardships and success that is truly [...]

The French Concession had 33 theatres making Shanghai one of the most cultured and international cities in the country even long before it’s rise as a modern metropolis.
The Cathay Theatre is one of the City’s most valued and easily recognised buildings from the past.
The Cinema was designed by the hungarian architect C. H. Gonda (who [...]

In The French Concession’s first blog post we want to introduce Silas Aaron Hardoon, an impressive personality that had significant influence in Shanghai’s architecture at the time.
Most people know Silas Hardoon as the Real Estate Tycoon, whose home the Hardoon Garden (now Shanghai’s International Exhibition Center) is as imposing now as it has been in [...]