Shikumen (石库门) houses in Shanghai

Shikumen (石库门) houses are a fusion of Chinese and European design unique to Shanghai. They were the standard type of housing in Shanghai from the 1860's through the 1930's. Originally they were built to house well-off Chinese refugees fleeing from the Small Swords and Taiping Rebellions in the 19^th century.  As more and more Chinese moved to the former foreign concessions in Shanghai, tens of thousands of them were built by real estate investors.  They generally took up the entire interior of a city block, with access by alleys called Longtong.  The alleys generally had elaborate stone gates (石库门) from which the housing type took its name.

Originally, a single family lived in a townhouse with two floors and 8 or more rooms depending on the size.   The smaller ones are around 1000 square feet, with a parlor, two other rooms and a kitchen on the ground floor, a mezzanine room above the kitchen (originally for a servant), and three rooms on the second floor.  Often an attic floor was added for additional servant rooms.  There was no piped water or sewage, both of which were communal facilities in the alley.

Under the legal arrangements between the foreign powers and the Qing Dynasty, only foreign residents could own real property in the concessions.  Since the tenants were Chinese, the owners were not able to deal with them directly, but hired Chinese partners who handled all dealings with the tenants, and turned over an agreed amount to the owners.  With the high turnover of foreign residents in Shanghai, most of the actual owners lost all connection with the buildings which they owned other than the cash flows from rent.  That left the Chinese property managers as the effective owners, and led to two developments, the effects of which are still present.

The first was extensive subdivision of the townhouses.   With the flood of internal immigrants coming to Shanghai, it turned out to be much more profitable to rent out each floor, and then each room as a separate apartment.  The servants’ rooms on the mezzanine and in the attic were rented out as cheaper one-room apartments, and often extensions were built on the roofs as well.  Thus the Shikumen blocks became (and remain) very high density housing with 7000 people or so per city block.  The second impact was the neglect of maintenance to maximize short-term cash flow, which meant that much of the housing (which had been built as rapidly as possible) became quite run-down.

Because of continued housing shortages after the second world war and because of the diversion of resources to industry during the 1950’s and 60’s, this housing continued to be used. New housing in the areas destroyed by the Japanese or converted from farm land as the city expanded was in the form of concrete block work-unit apartments, but much of the population of Shanghai continued to live in Shikumen apartments without plumbing or heat until the 1980’s.  Since that time, much of the old housing stock has been torn down and replaced by modern high-rise buildings.  Many of the people living in the old housing were moved to newer apartments in the outskirts of the city.  Preservationists (who are often not Chinese) lament the destruction of tradition and the disruption of neighborhoods.  Many of the former residents were happy to get indoor plumbing and more space in the new apartments.

Today, some of the surviving Shikumen housing in the foreign concessions is being converted into expensive modern townhouses.  Sometimes this is done by real estate developers, and sometimes by individuals (we have friends who have done so).  However, many of the old houses were build so cheaply in the first place and have become so run-down after decades of deferred maintenance that they cannot reasonable be salvaged.  In many cases, adding modern utilities is extremely difficult.  Most of the remaining Shikumen neighborhoods can best be described as slums.