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  • Happy Mid-Autumn Festival

    One of our biggest holidays, the Mid-Autumn Festival, is coming this Friday. This festival’s traditional food includes mooncakes that come in many different flavors.

    Here are some I wanted to show you:

    1. Five-Nut Mooncake (五仁月饼, wǔ rén yuè bǐng)
      It’s one of the classic flavors — sweet, rich, and packed with nuts.
    2. Fresh Pork Mooncake (鲜肉月饼, xiān ròu yuè bǐng)
      This one is the most popular mooncake in Shanghai. It’s savory rather than sweet, usually filled with seasoned pork.
    3. Vegetarian Mooncake (净素月饼, jìng sù yuè bǐng)
      The filling usually has nuts and seaweed, and it’s fully vegetarian — traditionally made without animal products. These are often made in temples or by vegetarian bakeries.

    Whether or not you get to try any mooncakes, I hope you can still feel the centuries-old Mid-Autumn blessing from China:
    Happy Mid-Autumn Festival — may your life be sweet and fulfilling.

  • No. 5 The Bund – A Tale of Two Cultures in Stone

    No. 5 The Bund was formerly the Nisshin Building. Its facade is elegantly divided into a tripartite composition, blending Meiji-era Western-style architecture with traditional European classical elements.

    Standing in front of the building, you might notice the stylistic nuance between the bottom and top, which comes from its complex origin.

    Construction began in 1921 and was completed in 1925, commissioned by Nisshin—the largest Japanese shipping enterprise in China at the time. Due to funding shortages during construction, the company entered a joint venture with a Jewish businessman.

    They agreed to a vertical division of labor: the Japanese investors handled the lower three floors and semi-basement, while the Jewish partner financed the upper three floors.

    This collaboration produced a distinctive architectural fusion — the lower section features a clean, minimalist aesthetic, while the upper floors boast elaborate classical columns, ornate window frames, and intricate reliefs. This blend earned the building the colloquial title of “Japanese-Jewish Style” architecture.

    The building’s history mirrors the turbulent 20th century. After the Anti-Japanese War ended in 1945, it was seized by the Chinese government as enemy property and repurposed as the office building for the China Merchants Steam Navigation Company.

    In the decades that followed, it served variously as the headquarters for the Shanghai Maritime Bureau, earning the local nickname “Maritime Building.”

    A new chapter began at the turn of the millennium. In 1999, an Australian entrepreneur opened M on the Bund on the top floor — the first privately owned Western restaurant on the Bund. With its sweeping views of the Huangpu River, it quickly became a favorite spot for dining and socializing, and helped bring new life to the Bund’s restaurant scene.

    Today, No. 5 The Bund is still a popular spot for international dining and leisure. But if you look up at its facade, you can still see the story it carries — the clean lines below, the ornate details above, and a history that refuses to be simplified.

  • The Chinese Characters Next to the Zodiac Animals

    Last week, I came across a foreign girl in a Chinese tea ware shop. She knew some Chinese but not much, so I helped her communicate with the shop owner, an elderly gentleman.

    She knew her zodiac sign but was confused by the Chinese characters next to the zodiac animals on the little cups.

    Well, that’s a bit complicated because it involves the system of 天干地支 (tiān gān dì zhī) — Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches. It was used in ancient Chinese astronomy and calendars to mark years, months, days, and hours. It was also widely used in divination, counting, and naming.

    Now, back to the Chinese zodiac: the twelve zodiac animals repeat every twelve years. So, if two different years are 12 years apart (e.g., 2014 and 2026), are they exactly the same?

    The answer is no.

    The reason lies in the combination of the ten Heavenly Stems and the twelve Earthly Branches. When you combine them sequentially—matching the first stem with the first branch, the second with the second, and so on—it takes sixty years for the same combination to reappear. This is known as the sexagenary cycle, or a full “甲子 (jiǎ zǐ)” cycle.

    I know the math might be a little confusing. Why is it 60 years instead of 120?

    Well, there’s a traditional rule: Yin pairs with Yin, and Yang pairs with Yang. In mathematical terms, it simply means odd numbers pair with odd numbers, and even numbers pair with even numbers.

    Take a look at the ten Heavenly Stems (甲 jiǎ, 乙 yǐ, 丙 bǐng, 丁 dīng, 戊 wù, 己 jǐ, 庚 gēng, 辛 xīn, 壬 rén, 癸 guǐ) and the twelve Earthly Branches (子 zǐ, 丑 chǒu, 寅 yín, 卯 mǎo, 辰 chén, 巳 sì, 午 wǔ, 未 wèi, 申 shēn, 酉 yǒu, 戌 xū, 亥 hài). According to this rule, we have years like Jiǎ Zǐ and Yǐ Chǒu, but we never have Jiǎ Chǒu or Yǐ Zǐ. Does that make sense?

    So, here’s a quick test for you: if this year is the year of the Bǐng Wǔ Horse, do you know what next year will be?

  • The Original Story of Fangsheng Bridge

    If you’ve been to the famous water town, Zhujiajiao, you might never forget the amazing Fangsheng Bridge.

    It’s the town’s most iconic landmark. This five-arch stone bridge is the largest of its kind in the Shanghai region, measuring 70.8 meters long and 7.4 meters high. The current bridge was built in 1812, but its story begins much earlier.

    Legend has it that in 1571, a Buddhist monk named Xingchao from a nearby Temple called Cimen raised funds to build the first bridge at this site.

    Before the bridge, people had to cross the river by a small wooden ferry. One stormy day, strong winds turned over the ferry. Xingchao’s pregnant mother was pulled from the water and gave birth on the shore—but she did not survive. Xingchao was left an orphan. He was raised by the villagers and eventually became a monk.

    To honor his mother’s memory and spare future travelers from similar danger, he traveled far and wide to raise money to build the original bridge.

    The name Fangsheng Bridge, literally ‘Setting-Free Bridge’, also reflects the Buddhist practice of releasing captive animals—a ritual that was once held there.

  • No. 1 The Bund – The Asia Building & Shanghai Jiushi International Art Center

    Completed in 1916, No. 1 The Bund sits right at the southern end of the waterfront. It’s widely known as the Asia Building.

    Just a year before it was finished, the Yangjingbang Creek — the waterway that separated the French Concession from the British Settlement — still flowed past its south side. It was filled in to become Avenue Edward VII, which later evolved into today’s East Yan’an Road.

    Architecturally, it’s a masterpiece of Eclecticism. It has the formal symmetry of Neoclassicism, but is adorned with rich Baroque details — like the swirling carvings above the entrance and the grand Ionic columns. Back in the day, it served as the headquarters for the Asiatic Petroleum Company — a subsidiary of Shell and one of the major British oil firms in the region.

    Later, it housed various local institutions, such as the Shanghai Metallurgical Design & Research Institute and the Shanghai Silk Company, before being carefully restored in recent years.

    Today, it has been beautifully transformed into the Jiushi International Art Center — the perfect place to experience the rich layers of Shanghai’s modern history, making it a must-see on any Bund visit.