Bomb Shelters Into Bars

From the same era, the old Shanghai No. 10 Steel Factory, built in 1956 and located in the Changning district, has been reborn as the Shanghai Sculpture Space. Sculptures from China and around the world pose on the wide green lawn, sit pensively in an indoor pit, and dip and dance from the ceiling. The expansive red brick building houses art galleries, design studios and cafés, as well as exhibition space.

Even bomb shelters have found a second life in Shanghai. From the 1930s, when Japan stepped up its aggression against the city, through the later years of China's civil war and the Cold War era, anti–air-raid committees dug thousands of bomb shelters. Today, two of them function as nightclubs. At the Shelter, a sparse space down a spooky, winding tunnel, Chinese and Japanese musicians perform in harmony. And at Shanghai Studio, which also houses an arty men's underwear shop, bartenders serve up stiff drinks in a mod bar–cum–art gallery.

Body & Soul Yoga Studio further reflects the city's multicultural flavor. At the turn of the 20th century, Jewish immigrants arrived from Bombay and Baghdad and settled in a residential neighborhood called Pacific Gardens. One hundred years later, Indian gentiles have come to teach yoga at a renovated merchant's home, just down the road from the Ohel Rachel Synagogue, where Jews worshiped from 1920 to 1952.

More projects are on tap. Hongkou district plans to transform the city's first auto parts plant into a 40,000-square-meter trade center for renewable-energy businesses, while Huangpu district will convert an old motorcycle factory into a showcase arena for luxury brands. There's no better symbolism for a city turning to its past to keep its economic engine humming.

© 2009