Shikumen homes (meaning ‘Stone Gate House’) were the trending style of construction in early 19 century middle class houses. A very Shanghainese thing, these houses were a blend of oriental and western architecture, typically a couple of floors high. They were all the rage back in the day (there were close to 9,000 houses in Shanghai) but have now been replaced in favor of apartment complexes in a city teeming with residents. With this precious piece of history becoming rarer, the government has set up one of the old houses as a museum with all the furnishings and trappings of the specific time period. This Shikumen Open House Museum is open to tourists and gives a view into how locals lived in the early 1900s.
Based in Xintiandi, Huangpu district, it is easily accessible by metro line 1 on the Shanghai subway station stop of Huangpi South road. A few steps further and visitors will hit Shikumen Open House Museum. The timings for visit are between 10:00 to 22:00 with a small admission charge of RMB20. But once inside, tourists are instantly thrown back a century in time to a stylish but small family home with the family about to come back home any time now. Going around the house and its two floors and reading the inscriptions (in Chinese and English) takes less than an hour but is well worth it.
There are about 10 areas to see in the old house, each furnished and set to astounding detail. Four bedrooms; a master bedroom, two for children and one for grandparents (exhibiting a joint family lifestyle) all connected together with doors in between. Also, there is a kitchen, a living room, a study, a prayer room, the staircase connecting the floors and a small pavilion or Tingzijiang between the floors that was often rented out at a small cost to struggling writers or artists of that period. What really gives the house an authentic vibe is the little touches of lace dollies strewn about on furniture and lamps, ruffled sheets on the bed as if someone just rolled out of it, well-loved picture frames of close ones on surfaces as well as the little steel fans on table tops placed just so in certain rooms. The feeling of standing outside looking in on someone’s life is quite strong here.
After getting their fill of nostalgia from the Shikumen museum, tourists have a lot more to explore still on Xintiandi. Another museum (First National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party Museum) is on the same road, which has been blocked for traffic. Pedestrian walk under tree lined streets, flanked with shops and restaurants on either side which have the exterior of traditional Shikumen houses and old school feels inside. A nice way to wind down is to take up a spot in one of the cafes with street side seating area, grab a delectable cup of coffee (or tea. Or beer) and enjoy people gazing as life passes you by.