Shanghai’s Historical Sites for Singapore History Buffs

For the Singapore history enthusiast, travel is often a quest for resonant echoes. We seek places where the complex narratives of trade, colonialism, migration, and nation-building find a parallel chorus. While London or Amsterdam might be obvious ports of call, the more profound and startling mirror lies in Shanghai. This is not a city of mere historical footnotes; it is a sprawling, living archive where the very forces that shaped Singapore—the British Empire, the opium trade, the tumult of war, and the fierce pride of a global port city—played out on an even more dramatic, tumultuous scale. Put away your Bund postcard for a moment. This journey is for those who want to trace the fingerprints of history in the brickwork and the back alleys.

The Concession Era: A Comparative Colonial Canvas

Singapore’s colonial story is often framed through the singular lens of the British East India Company and Sir Stamford Raffles. Shanghai, however, presents a dizzying experiment in multinational imperialism. Walking its former concessions is like navigating a fractured, competitive world order, a stark contrast to Singapore’s relatively unified colonial administration.

The British Concession & The Bund: Imperial Grandeur and Commerce

Start at the Bund. To a Singaporean eye, the neoclassical and art deco skyline is instantly familiar—it’s the civic district of the Singapore River on a monumental scale. The former Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) building, the Custom House, and the Sassoon House (now the Fairmont Peace Hotel) speak the same architectural language of imperial confidence as our own Fullerton Building or the former Supreme Court. These were the nerve centers of trade, finance, and colonial power. The key difference? In Shanghai, the British were just one player in a crowded field. Standing here, you understand the competitive pressure that drove colonial ports to out-build and out-trade each other. The Bund was their showroom.

The French Concession: A Study in Contrasted Governance

Venture into the tree-lined avenues and shikumen (stone-gate) neighborhoods of the former French Concession. This area offers a fascinating counterpoint. While less overtly commercial than the Bund, its legacy is one of administered lifestyle, civic planning, and a distinct cultural imprint—reminiscent of how different colonial powers left unique marks on Southeast Asia. The preserved police station, the Cathay Theatre, and the apartment blocks tell a story of a colonial administration that sought to create a piece of Paris in the East. For a Singaporean, it prompts reflection on how British urban planning, social codes, and legal systems became the bedrock of our own modern state, while the French left a different kind of legacy here.

The International Settlement: A Lawless Microcosm

The heart of old Shanghai, the International Settlement, was a place of extraordinary complexity. Jointly administered by British and American consuls, it was a city-within-a-city that operated under its own rules. This was the realm of tycoons, adventurers, refugees, and gangsters. It’s the world of The Last Tycoon and the backdrop to the wild 1930s. For a student of Singapore’s history, this chaotic, entrepreneurial, and often brutal zone reflects the same raw port-city energy that characterized early colonial Singapore—the triads, the migrant struggles, the incredible wealth generated alongside desperate poverty. Places like the Jing'an Temple, standing serene amidst the former settlement’s chaos, or the quiet Zhang Garden (once a dazzling public amusement hall), speak to the layered identities of a city in flux.

War, Refuge, and the Diaspora Nexus

Singapore and Shanghai share a deep, somber connection through the crucible of World War II in Asia. Both fell to the Japanese, and both endured a brutal occupation.

The Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum: A Story of Sanctuary

In the Hongkou district, the Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum (located in the former Ohel Moshe Synagogue) tells a story unknown to many. As doors closed around the world in the late 1930s, Shanghai—with its unique stateless concessions—remained open. It became a haven for over 20,000 Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi persecution. Walking the restored streets of the "Little Vienna" area around Tilanqiao, you encounter a powerful narrative of displacement and survival. For a Singaporean, this history resonates with our own understanding of Singapore as a refuge for countless communities across centuries. It adds a profound layer to the city’s identity as a reluctant sanctuary in a world at war, mirroring Singapore’s own role for many in Southeast Asia.

The Site of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea

Tucked away in the French Concession is a site of immense national significance for another country. This unassuming building served as the seat of the Provisional Government of Korea for over a decade after Japan’s annexation of the peninsula. Korean independence activists, including Kim Gu, plotted and organized here. It is a stark reminder that Shanghai was not just a colonial playground or a Chinese metropolis; it was a staging ground for the national destinies of others. This echoes Singapore’s own position in the 20th century as a hub for anti-colonial and political movements across the region.

Port City DNA: Trade, Opium, and the Making of Modernity

The economic rise of both Singapore and Shanghai is inextricably linked to their status as deep-water ports at the mouths of major rivers (the Yangtze and the Singapore Strait/Johor River). But with this came the shadow trade.

The Rockbund and the Opium Trade

The northern end of the Bund, known as the Rockbund area, was the original British landing point. Here, history’s dark underbelly is palpable. The grand warehouses and trading houses that once stored tea and silk were also central to the opium trade that fueled the city’s—and the empire’s—early wealth. This is a direct, uncomfortable parallel to Singapore’s own historical role as an entropôt, where the British also oversaw the opium trade that had devastating social consequences. Visiting museums like the Rockbund Art Museum (housed in a former Royal Asiatic Society building) or simply observing the architecture in this district forces a contemplation of the moral ambiguities at the heart of colonial-era prosperity, a theme deeply relevant to any honest study of Southeast Asian port history.

Modern Metamorphosis: From Colonial Past to Global Future

Perhaps the most compelling parallel for a Singaporean is witnessing Shanghai’s breathtaking, state-directed transformation in the late 20th and 21st centuries. Pudong’s skyline, rising from marshland in the 1990s, is a statement as bold as Singapore’s own relentless urban development. It represents a conscious reclaiming of global stature. Visiting the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Center is a must. Its enormous scale model of the city is a piece of futurist propaganda that any Singaporean familiar with our own URA models will find fascinating. It answers the question: How does a city with a painful, semi-colonial past consciously architect its future? The answer, in both Shanghai and Singapore, involves a mix of pragmatic economics, social engineering, and a powerful narrative of national resurgence.

Xintiandi: The Blueprint for Heritage Commercialization

No visit for a Singapore history buff is complete without a critical stroll through Xintiandi. This is the famous shikumen preservation and redevelopment project, where traditional lane houses have been transformed into a high-end dining and retail precinct. It is sleek, beautiful, and successful. For a Singaporean, it is impossible not to think of Clarke Quay, or the conservation shophouses of Tanjong Pagar. Xintiandi represents a global model: how to sanitize, commodify, and repackage historical architecture for tourism and cosmopolitan consumption. It’s a masterclass in heritage economics, raising the same questions we grapple with at home about authenticity, memory, and the price of preservation in a capitalist landscape.

Walking Shanghai’s streets, the Singaporean history enthusiast is engaged in a constant, silent dialogue. The Yuyuan Garden echoes with the same scholar-gentry aesthetics that influenced Peranakan culture. The hustle of the former Longhua Airport area (now a creative cluster) speaks to adaptive reuse. The imposing WAIGAOQIAO free trade zone continues the city’s centuries-old mercantile destiny. Shanghai does not offer simple answers, but it provides a magnificent, complex counterpoint. It holds up a mirror, sometimes flattering, often disturbing, but always illuminating, to the forces that built a island nation far to the south. To understand one is to deepen your understanding of the other.