Shanghai Old Street

This guide to Shanghai Old Street opens in 1912, when a newly appointed revolutionary governor ordered workers to tear down a fortified wall that had stood for roughly 350 years, built in the 1550s to keep pirate raiders out of the old walled town. It traces why that wall stayed up long after its enemies were gone, and follows the vanished canal that once ran beneath this very street, carrying goods to merchants and tea houses since the Ming and Qing dynasties. Walk toward Yu Garden and you're tracing the exact route boats once rowed.