Old Resident Buildings

In old Shanghai, people used to live in two to three story houses that are extremely long and very close to each other. They form many narrow meandering footpaths, which have been the unit of Shanghai residence for a long time. Such units include three to five lines of short buildings and the footpaths within them. They are called "Li","Nong" or generally called "Linong". Each Linong has its own name. Like today, people often say that “ I live in XXX building, apt YYY…”, but about twenty years ago, people said “ I live in Yongwen Li”, “ I live in Kuanan Nong” ( “Yongwen” and “Kuanan” are both names of Linong) and so on.

See the picture of Linong:





At that time, all Shanghainese lived in such house. The living environment was extremely bad. Often, hundreds of people lived in one Linong. The long buildings were divided into many parts. Two to three families lived in one part, each story holds one family. Every divided part has one kitchen and several bathrooms, so the families lives in the same area share the kitchen, with several stoves in it, and have one bathroom for themselves. Generally, one family, no matter there are three or six people, have only one big room. Therefore, people were very closed to their neighbor, sometimes even nearer than their relatives. They talked when cooking, when washing, when eating, and any time they were at home.