I used to work in Hang Lung Plaza. Jing 'an District has the true elegance and grace of the prosperity of Greater Shanghai. Hengmeitai on Nanjing West Road is so intoxicating. At that time, the 66-story Plaza 66 was the absolute commanding height of Puxi, and white-collar workers were happy to be able to work in a high-end office building like Hang Lung Plaza. However, the white-collar life from nine to five at that time made me not have much thought to feel the true charm of Jing 'an; later, when I became a travel blogger, I finally made "going out" a daily routine, and I was obsessed with the morning and evening on the road. Naturally, I will also ignore the beauty of the city around me.

Until this epidemic temporarily stopped travel bloggers from exploring the world, we had more time to discover the beauty around us that we had neglected. Finally, on a rainy afternoon in May, I went near Hang Lung Square and walked into the familiar but unfamiliar Shaanxi North Road.

I said that Shaanxi North Road is familiar because when I used to work in Henglong, I often ate authentic Shanghai noodles at the noodle shop on Shaanxi North Road at noon, or held meetings with suppliers in a cafe, or went to the store with colleagues after work. Go to hang out with my colleagues to buy some popular small items. The road is not wide and very suitable for walking. It is a veritable tree-lined avenue.

It is said that Shaanxi North Road is unfamiliar because this 100-meter road is connected by 21 famous houses. At that time, I basically took a quick look at it and didn't really go deep into it, nor did I walk into any of the new residential houses and apartments on Shaanxi North Road. It is a pity to say that it is a pity.

Shaanxi North Road is a truly historical and cultural street in Shanghai. It has diverse architectural styles. After a century of collage, it has combined Spanish-style, eclectic, Renaissance, Greek shrine, and neoclassical style buildings into it, constituting the current Shaanxi North Road is a typical inclusive Shanghai style.

In summer, the sycamore trees on both sides of the road are so lush that they block the sun, and the scenery here is the best.

Shaanxi North Road is called by old Shanghainese as "running through a small part of the history of the Republic of China". The three sisters of the Song family, the old residence of Xu Chongzhi, the old residence of Dong Haoyun, the old residence of Hedong, Nanyang Apartment, and Huaye Apartment, are the former celebrity residences. Most of them stand on both sides of the street.

After a century, many historical buildings have been preserved on North Shaanxi Road, while others have now become offices, high-end clubs, cafes, shops, restaurants, museums, residential buildings, etc.

Unlike Nanjing West Road, which is always crowded with people, Shaanxi North Road at the corner is always quiet and calm. A bungalow in Lane 470, Shaanxi North Road is called Taiping Garden. In the early years of the Republic of China, Wu Tingfang, a Cantonese diplomat who was a Qing diplomat, funded the construction of European-style three-story apartments here. Since 1928, his son Wu Chaoshu has built two houses of the same style in the lane. Now the arched lane you see on the door frame of the lane is named "Pacific Garden" in English, and there is a small wooden sign next to the door that says "Taiping Garden" are all left behind from that time.

The shape of the building in Taiping Garden is full of strong Europa style. The stairs and windows are all rounded. The 16 door openings on the ground floor also adopt the European architectural form of double-hugging connected arches. The interior layout is similar to Shanghai Shikumen. A Western-style conjoined house separated between the north and south. In the early days of Taiping Garden, all residents were Jews. At the beginning of the last century, Jews were all rich people. To this day, the old Shanghai neighborhood in this area still uses to call Taiping Garden a "Jewish alley."

Now, when you walk into Taiping Garden, the old-fashioned houses with red brick arches are still there, but the fireworks are stronger. The house was either rented to a cigarette and paper shop, barber shop, or restaurant shop, or rented to someone to start a company. The residents '"Ten Thousand National Flag" floated outside the red walls of the old houses. Old people would sometimes stick their heads out from the windows to overlook the street or look for gossip. The stone staircase is cleaned clean by the garden cleaners every day, but it still cannot conceal the mark of those years.

These scattered stone ladders often become a check-in point for modern young people. Passers-by will walk into Taiping Garden curiously, not eager to understand its past and present lives, but just with a somewhat curious mentality.

The story of "Shanghai's Schindler" in Taiping Garden is like this: After the Pearl Harbor Incident broke out in 1941, a large number of Jews flocked to Shanghai to take refuge. There was a "Shanghai's Schindler" in Taiping Garden. He was Wu Tingfang, the big landlord of Taiping Garden. He expressed his willingness to accept these Jews and used the garden house that was originally used as a dowry for his daughter to accommodate a group of Jewish refugees. Taiping Garden records the past that has been lost in the mortal world. The stone ladder leading to the second floor silently carries the years when the Jews wandered in a foreign land.

To this day, the old Shanghai neighborhood along Seymour Road still calls the Taiping Garden a "Jewish House." There are still some elderly people living in Taiping Garden. The aunt at the door said that they usually come out to bask in the sun after 2 o'clock in the afternoon. If you meet them, you can chat and ask about the past story of the house.

However, I waited from morning to afternoon that day, and I didn't meet an old man who went out to bask in the sun who could tell me stories. I learned from the Internet that in recent decades, elderly foreign tourists have often come to visit Taiping Garden. Most of them are old residents who spent their childhood here or descendants of old residents. Almost all of them are Jews. When they saw Taiping Garden, they remembered the time when they were driven out and wandered and then accepted. They even covered their faces and cried, which reminded me of the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem.

Jews do have this kind of "root-seeking" plot. The area around Seymour Synagogue is very famous in the Jewish community. Even Mrs. Clinton and Hillary's father once attended the Jewish school next to Taiping Garden Song.

There are more than a dozen rooms on the fourth floor of Taiping Garden Building, with a separate bathroom and balcony on each floor. From the 1920s to the early 1930s, Taiping Garden was inhabited by foreigners. The household level was the petty bourgeoisie among Jews: doctors, engineers, managers of foreign firms, etc. They may not have such good conditions in their own country at that time. Until the outbreak of World War II, Taiping Garden was like a little Noah's Ark, sheltering the Jews and their stories.

Later, when the puppet Manchukuo was established, Cantonese people in the Japanese Concession in Hongkou could not stand the arrogance and pressure of the Japanese Concession authorities, and moved away from Hongkou to other Concession areas. The area around Seymour Road was the most concentrated, and of course Taiping Garden was also among them. It is said that Taiping Garden gradually became the world of Cantonese people in this way, and was then rented out to various people to start "various businesses."

Time keeps changing, and there are fewer and fewer elderly people who can still know the past history of Taiping Garden like a treasure. I can only read the section of Jewish sailors and Miss Shanghai in Taiping Garden from Cheng Naishan's "Shanghai Tango". The transnational love story.

When the early summer sun shines into Taiping Garden, on one side, Jewish descendants seeking their roots are crying on the stone ladder, and on the other side, the quiet years are in full bloom.