A Snapshot of Shanghai: Kangding Road

The reason I ended up living in my small one-bedroom flat on Kangding Road is really because of my cat. I had to leave my previous apartment in Pudong, where cats weren’t allowed, and my current landlord was fine with keeping a cat. Hence, I have been living here for the last five and a half years.

There are no ‘suburbs’ per se in China. You usually rent in a compound or a high-rise within the city. My apartment is in a compound. The street is quite noisy, and unfortunately, my bedroom is four floors above the street. Other than that, it is a lovely neighbourhood to live in to get the ‘Shanghai’ experience, as well as being fairly close to Changping Lu station on Line 7.

Currently, still in quarantine, my routine of working from home is well established. In the mornings, I go for my coffee run and have good options to choose from. There is Coffee Groupies, which offers both dark and medium-roast options. You wait a little longer than at Starbucks, but the coffee is really good (and affordable), and the staff are friendly. The whole-wheat dark chocolate chip cookies are also to die for. If I fancy a slightly different-tasting cappuccino, Coffee Buzz, Ichido, and Starbucks are just around the corner on the main road.

Kangding Road is a lovely street to walk along and, like many streets in Shanghai, there are trees on both sides, wonderfully cool to stroll under during the hot summer months. Before they were recently pruned and sprayed, their branches reached up to my window, a lovely sight in summer. People walking their dogs and elderly residents sitting on stools outside their compounds are a common sight.

Walking east will eventually take you to some expat restaurants like the German pub Zeitgeist, as well as the ever-popular Shed. Walking westwards, the scene is almost stereotypically Chinese: small electronics shops selling everything you could imagine; clothing shops that open and then close down just as quickly, their spaces taken over by new shop owners with their latest ventures; the tiny, life-saving printing shop wedged between the electronic scooter shop and the fruit and veg stall on the corner; street food outlets with boiling pots of water, selling flatbreads and baozi.

Eventually, you reach Wuding Road, which runs north to south. Here you’ll find J’s Grocery Store, one of those great little import shops that sells everything from peanut butter, a variety of beers and wines, bags of real corn nachos, cheeses, meats, and fresh fruits and vegetables. One of my favourite restaurants in Shanghai, Fat Cow, is also here. Mostly a gourmet burger and sports pub, they have large screens and large burgers with really original names like the ‘Cowabunga’ and ‘Moombai’ burgers.

When it comes to local food, the local halal Chinese joint has some great ‘Chinese burgers’ and noodles (much cheaper, but no seats are available during lunchtime), and the small Japanese restaurant opposite my compound serves excellent tomato-beef ramen and outstanding sushi. After work, I sometimes pop into the local Family Mart for a Cornetto ice cream. As an expat living in China, I consider myself lucky.

Surrounded by tall blocks of flats and older-style red-roofed compounds, the street reflects the ever-changing face of Shanghai. Just up the road, the last of some old and very dilapidated ‘shikumens’ are being bulldozed to make way for more apartment blocks. A city that is so massive and sprawling can be difficult to comprehend, take in, and write about. Here on Kangding Road, with the smell of stinky fried tofu, honking scooters, and loud locals, you get a snapshot.