Yeah Shanghai!

April 3, 2006 11:37 AM

Old photos of Shanghai from Virtual Shanghai is one of the best collections of old Shanghai photos (over 2000) I've found on the web, and it has a nice map collection too. Tales of Old Shanghai has a lot of great stuff, especially primary texts. Sinomania has a pretty eclectic collection of photos. Some of my favorites so far.
posted by banishedimmortal (7 comments total)

This is very cool.
posted by OmieWise at 11:57 AM on April 3, 2006

Wow. Fantastic. Thank you.
posted by jokeefe at 1:10 PM on April 3, 2006

Superb post. I'd add that Tales of Old Shanghai also has a map page—not as many maps, but a lot easier to use (it would be nice if the Virtual Shanghai map site let you order the maps by date; it's a pain in the ass to keep clicking through all those pages hoping to find a map from a particular time period).
posted by languagehat at 1:58 PM on April 3, 2006

Great links, thanks.
posted by MetaMonkey at 3:59 PM on April 3, 2006

This is a nice companion to a few Neal Stephenson novels that feature Shanghai quite prominently. I'm thinking here of Cryptonomicon and Diamond Age. I particularly like the scene at the opening of Cryptonomicon that features the bank agents in the city rushing at the close of business to settle up currency transfers during World War 2.
posted by thanotopsis at 5:59 PM on April 3, 2006

Nice. I'm sending these to my grandpa, who was stationed in Shanghai after WWII. Something he'd probably never find on his own but will enjoy.
posted by Biblio at 6:26 PM on April 3, 2006

I've been to Beijing for the first time 2 years ago... Seeing these picture, it's like traveling back in time... Thanks for that bannishedimmortal.
posted by mrhappysad at 9:52 AM on April 4, 2006