Xin Tian Di

"People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."
--Maya Angelou, American writer

Chris and I first visited Shanghai in 2005 and were told about a place called Xin Tian Di (pronounced Shin-Ti-An-Di). We couldn't pronounce it, but we had heard that it was a great place for expats to hang out - a protected pedestrian area right in the heart of the city with lots of Western restaurants, pubs, music and good energy. Since we had been "trapped" in Fuzhou for several weeks at the time, we were anxious to see what it was all about, and when we found Xin Tian Di we discovered it was all that everyone had told us - and more. Not only was there an excellent selection of Western restaurants - German, Italian, French, American - but there was dining al fresco, something we had yet to see in China!

Xin Tian Di was built in the late 1990s by an enterprising forward-thinking developer who wanted to combine the modern urban lifestyle of Shanghai with the historical Shikumen style of architecture popular to the city in the early 1900s. The city, anxious to maintain its unique architectural history, agreed to retain many of the original Shikumen buildings located in the central and oldest part of the city, which still carries some of the unique flavors of Old Shanghai. Although the interiors of the old buildings were gutted, renovated and modernized, the exterior structures were preserved, including the original exterior walls surrounding the area, creating a unique combination of old and new and reinvigorating a dilapidated residential area with new commercial vigor!

While Xin Tian Di's architecture reflected the retro-Shikumen style of design, its outdoor dining concept, based on the cafes of Paris, was brazenly new and completely unfamiliar to Shanghai diners. Although the city supported their efforts, the developers were informed that their whimsical Parisian notions of outdoor cafés would be a failure with the Shanghai-nese - al fresco dining would never catch on in a city like Shanghai. Yet although the city's weather is not conducive to year-round outdoor dining, the concept of al fresco dining in the new trendy Xin Tian Di not only caught on, it spread like wildfire! Outdoor dining instantly became increasingly more popular in the city, especially among the growing population of Western expats, and now most restaurants will offer some type of outdoor seating arrangement whenever possible.

Coming from New York City with its many sidewalk cafes and restaurants, Chris and I couldn't have been happier to find a bustling outdoor dining complex filled with restaurants serving all of our favorite international cuisine and playing live music well into the night. Catering to both expats and locals, Xin Tian Di is an environment like no other we've found in China, and we love it. Now, as if to further confirm our high opinion of the area, the developers of Xin Tian Di, based on their success in Shanghai, have recently begun constructing similar complexes in several of China's other major cities, which is great news for both visitors and locals alike.

Today I took advantage of the nice weather and sat at this little café, called Kabb, right in the heart of Xin Tian Di. I had a snack at one of the outdoor tables, taking in the people and the beautiful architecture, and got a dose of Western culture right in the middle of one of China's largest cities. Chris was stuck at the office today, but I'll let him know what's new in our favorite urban hangout here in Shanghai and promise we'll return soon. There's always so much to take in, lots of fun new places to check out, and everything a weary Westerner needs to reenergize, so who wouldn't look forward to a trip back to the cafes of Xin Tian Di?