Going full speed down Yuyuan Rd
A NEARLY century-old post office on downtown Yuyuan Road has been redeveloped into a stylish department store. It is part of the renewal campaign for the historic road in Changning District.
The vintage-style Yuyuan Department Co features a cafe, fashion stores, an art gallery and retrospective exhibitions.
The building at 1018 Yuyuan Road was constructed in 1927 and served as a logistics center of the Jiangsu Road postal bureau.
The inner structure of the historical post office has been preserved along with original pillars, wooden stairs and arched doors.
Two nearby buildings, formerly offices of the Shanghai Workers College of Medical Science, have been converted into an art gallery and community canteen and market.
The Yuyuan Road Public Bazaar aims to mainly serve residents and white-collar workers.
Visitors to the bazaar can enjoy traditional Shanghai breakfast items such as
(fried dough stick), (flat bread) and soybean milk, as well as traditional services such as key duplication and umbrella repair.
These projects were unveiled for the 2018 City Life Festival of Changning District which started yesterday. The annual cultural and art festival aims to showcase the achievements of the ongoing revamp.
The authority aims to develop artistic and aesthetic designs in the century-old Yuyuan Road, while offering better services and businesses to the residents, according to Shanghai Creater Industrial Co, which is in charge of the redevelopment of Yuyuan Road.
Street artists from around the world will also perform along the road during the festival.
Magicians, dancers and Kunqu Opera performers will put on a series of performances on a public lawn in front of the Creater Space.
The road — which dates back to 1911, the final year of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) — runs through the districts of Changning and Jing’an.
The Changning government has been demolishing illegal buildings and establishing databases for each of the more than 100 historic villas on both sides of the road.
It has invited architects and designers to take part in innovative renovations of public areas, shops and various community facilities to modernize the road and enhance its retrospective appeal. At 1065 Yuyuan Road, a former residents’ activity center has been turned into a “public living room.”
Old-fashioned telephones have been mounted on walls. When visitors pick up the receivers, they can listen to the sirens of electric trams and the cries of newspaper hawkers that were commonly heard in local communities decades ago.
To further revamp the road and restore its historical ambiance, a “city renewal laboratory” was launched yesterday at the opening ceremony of the festival. The lab aims to involve more fashion and creative elements to the road.