Old Shanghai throws open welcoming arms

Pan Rongda has always been mesmerized by the old neighborhoods in Hongkou district of Shanghai, an area where lanes intertwine, small markets ooze liveliness and shikumen-style houses have remained largely unchanged for more than a century.

The 30-something was born and raised in the area. The area, north of Suzhou Creek, has largely retained its old neighborhoods, a very local area with few skyscrapers and big shopping malls, thus evading tons of tourist groups.

"I love the old feeling here," Pan says. "I grew up in a nongtang (lane in Shanghainese dialect) in the area, and I'd like my guests to experience the localness of the city, too."

Pan runs a bed and breakfast guesthouse in Dongzhaoli, one of the lanes in the area where the early Communist leader and literary translator Qu Qiubai once lived, and opposite the entrance of the lane is the former residence of the renowned writer Lu Xun.

The 500-meter Tian'ai Road, or the road of sweet love, is within a three-minute walk, and local lovers go there to scrawl their names or commitment on the walls along the street. Many believe that if they walk the entire route their love will be forever blessed and they will never be separated.

Duolun Road, a pedestrian cultural street lined with teahouses, art galleries and antiques shops, is just a few blocks further. Many literary celebrities in modern China lived here in the first half of the 20th century.

The three-storied guesthouse Pan operates was built in the 1920s in shikumen-style, a traditional Shanghainese architectural style combining Western elements such as a terrace house structure and Chinese elements of the courtyard enclosed by a stone gate.

Pan lives in the attic and has listed the four rooms in the house on Airbnb, the online home-sharing platform, since summer last year.

Pan was a white-collar worker in multinational companies for eight years and on a whim decided to become a B&B owner.

"I just got bored of the routine work everyday, and wanted to try something else one day," Pan says.