Do you know about Jianye Li in Shanghai?

Jianye Li is located at the intersection of Jianguo West Road and Yueyang Road, where there is the largest existing collection of Shikumen residences, part of the Xuhui historical and cultural conservation area in Shanghai. Shikumen is the most characteristic residential architecture in Shanghai, blending Western culture with the features of traditional Chinese dwellings. Jianye Li boasts 22 rows of more than 200 Shikumen lane houses, originally built by a French real estate company in the 1930s, and is considered an outstanding historical building in Shanghai. In my memory, the old Jianye Li was lined with various small shops along the streets and alleys, catering to the daily needs of nearby residents. As a child, I often followed adults there to shop, and as I grew up, I would also go there to purchase items or snacks. Today, since its opening in 2017, the first Capella Hotel in China is located here. Capella is a luxury hotel brand from Singapore, founded in 2002 by Horst Schulze, a co-founder of The Ritz-Carlton Hotel. The architect Jaya Ibrahim set the design concept to: recreate the unique community atmosphere of the 1930s. Capella Hotels have always favored old buildings for their locations, and their debut in China at Jianye Li is no exception. Nestled within the Shikumen architecture, it combines traditional Shanghai style with Western architectural elements, preserving classic features of the traditional Shikumen residences such as the horse-head walls, exposed red bricks, and semi-circular arch doorways, presenting the unique Haipai culture of Shanghai. The Capella Hotel in Jianye Li is also the only all-villa urban resort hotel in Shanghai. Currently, Jianguo West Road is one of the streets in Shanghai that will never be widened. When you walk under the dense canopy of French plane trees on this street and step into Jianye Li where the hotel is located, you see the historic buildings with their own stories, feeling the cultural heritage of Shanghai's Haipai city.