Shanghai parks

If you are moving to Shanghai with a family, you will quickly discover a pattern. Parents talk. They compare compounds. They ask about schools, green space, and whether you can actually get a proper grocery delivery without waiting two hours. And sooner or later, someone will say: Have you looked at Gubei? Gubei and the broader Hongqiao area are not the flashiest parts of Shanghai. They do not...

Every neighbourhood has a living room. The Former French Concession's is Fuxing Park (复兴公园) — ten hectares of plane trees, rose beds and gravel paths where, every single morning, the whole opera of Shanghai life performs: tai chi at dawn, ballroom dancers by nine, chess players holding court, a choir somewhere behind the fountain, and a man writing poetry on the pavement in water that evaporates...