Longtang Shanghai The Chinese Culture Architectural Heritage

Longtang (Lilong) is a lane in Shanghai where the Shanghainese-style lane house apartments are located. This cultural icon of Shanghai marks the name of residential developments in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. A Chinese architectural heritage, Longtang in Shanghai is what Hutong is in Beijing.

Since my solo travel to China coincided with the Chinese New Year, I couldn’t afford to stay in the hotel, so I chose Airbnb instead. Also, Airbnb gives a better overview of local life and culture, something I am incredibly interested in.

My Longtang Shanghai Airbnb

A few days before I reached China, my Longtang Shangai Airbnb owner messaged me. They said something came up, so they wouldn’t be in the house. Hence I got the whole place to myself!

On that day, my friend’s dad dropped me off with the remark that Longtang was an old neighbourhood. So, strangely, I managed to book a hotel in the centre of the city’s old French Concession. “It’s not a hotel. It is a….” I started to explain the concept of Airbnb to him.

I walked past metallic trash booths in the Longtang, the signature look of Shanghai apartment complexes (trash dumped in front of the apartments), into an old three-story apartment complex. That’s when I discovered that it was a historical lane house called Longtang, dating back to the Golden Age of the 20s in Shanghai.

When I finally found number 53 in the Longtang, I called their neighbour to let me in.

The door was opened, and I saw a long and tiny hallway but nothing else. Their place was on the third floor, with the other two floors occupied by two different owners. There was a little staircase on the left. I immediately realized I had to lift my thirty kilos of luggage upstairs. The staircase was small, with tiny steps that made cracking sounds with every single step I took.

It was hell! I don’t know how long it took to get everything up while the neighbour watched without offering a hand, such a gentleman he was. Upstairs, he passed me the keys and a torch. ‘Torchlight? Why torchlight?’ I remembered thinking. On the contrary, the house was really nice, as pictured on the website: cozy with a dash of vintage. I began to like it.

I put my things in the room and went for a late lunch of Shanghai delicacies. The rest of the day was spent roaming around Tianzifang, the cultural market in Shanghai, and finally went home before stopping by a Starbucks nearby for some peach blossom tea latte.

The Longtang dark alley greeted me once I turned into the entrance.

If there were any, the street lights hadn’t been turned on. I stumbled and searched in the dark. “Which one was the apartment? Phew, I found it!” I put the key in and opened the door. Another dark space greeted me, but this one was pitch black without the moonlight, and I finally knew why I was given a torchlight! I braced myself and went in. The doors banged on my back, and the steps made cracking noises.

It felt like something out of a horror movie, and I, my friends, am scared of ghosts.

I could not take it anymore. F@#$ this, I thought before turning back and storming out. I decided to sleep in a hotel room for the night, but when I was about to get into the taxi, I remembered that I needed my passport to check in, and I had left it in the room. $%#@@#$*!!! So I went back, climbed three stories of stairs in the pitch dark (the torch made everything look even scarier), and reached my Longtang Shanghai Airbnb again.

Three nights later, it was finally over. I dragged my luggage down in the pitch dark (early morning flight) while cursing myself with each step-down. Outside, I inhaled the dawn air deeply; leaving the place felt so freaking good.

After this, would I consider Airbnb again? Yes, I most definitely would! It was a privilege to stay in Longtang, the ground zero of Shanghai culture. The good ones will be fun. The bad ones, well, if I survive, will give me stories like this one to share.

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