Over the last 15 years I have been helping my mother rediscover the old Shanghai where she was born in the 1930s. In researching her family tree, we realised that she was the fourth generation of a strong line of western women to live in Shanghai.
At first we thought many of the places she remembered from her childhood would have been demolished after years of communism, however we soon realised this was not the case. In 2014 we travelled to Shanghai and began exploring the city and the French Concession, where many buildings still remain. It wasn’t long before we began to find old homes and her school. In 2016 we returned to Shanghai and continued our investigation.
I decided to write this blog to share the information we have uncovered from our many years of research, and my own photos from exploring the city. I hope it might help other families looking for similar information, or even provide images for those unable to travel to Shanghai themselves.
As there is already much written about the old buildings of Shanghai from a design and architectural perspective (and I have no expertise in this area), my focus and interest will be on the people and events which occurred at these places. I use a location to help understand how Westerners lived in old Shanghai, during the 1800s when it was a new port, and the booming early 1900s when the city was know as the Paris of the East.
There are some celebrated historical buildings in Shanghai which are well documented. With this site, I hope to bring attention to interesting buildings which haven’t received much attention but may be of interest to those researching their personal family histories.
I am also interested in your stories and feedback and I love receiving emails from all over the world. Please feel free to share your memories or photos of Shanghai from the 1850s to 1950s.
Lara de la Harpe
Perth, Western Australia
Finding old Shanghai 
