Old Shanghai postcards from the 1930s are common to find in auctions on the internet. What is much rarer are postcards from before WW1. Here is a fine example from 1907 sent from Old Shanghai to France.

Postcards were invented in the late 19th century, originally one side for the address and one side for the message. The real modern postcard is called “divided back”, still in use today. It was officially adopted in the UK in 1902, France in 1903 and by the Universal Postal Union in 1907. This postcard from 1907 must have been one of the early ones.
The card is stamped 20th jun 07. China only joined the Universal Postal Union in March 1914. Before that, major countries had their own post office in Shanghai, including the German post office on Guangdong Lu. The French post office where this postcard was posted was probably on Rue Montauban (today Sichuan Nan lu / 四川南路) close to Rue du Consulat (Jinling Lu / 金陵路) as seen on the below map of the French Concession in 1900.
As this was posted in a French Post Office, this stamp is also French. It shows “République Française” on the top and “Chine” on the bottom. So this was truly posted at a French post office in China. It is stamped “Shang-hai / Chine”.
This card is multi-views postcard, those were the luxury type of postcards according to Thomas Brand’s “China in those days'”, the reference book on the topic. The illustration looks like two photos that seems to have pinned on the main card, along with some “Chinese” elements including a triangular yellow flag, pane tree leaves and Chinese lanterns. The caption “Souvenir from Shanghai” is on a banner. Picture left is of Hongkou market, captioned “Central market”. The Central Market or Hong Kou market was located on Woosung Rd / 吴淞路.
Picture right is “Broadway” the main street of the Hongkou side of the concession, that used to be the American concession until 1863, today Damin Lu / 大名路. Although it is captioned souvenir from Shanghai, it is only made of two views from Hong Kou district, so it is more like “Souvenir from Hongkou”. A specific shop is represented on the left side of the picture, “Japanese Art Curios and Leather Goods”. Its title is noticeably clear compared to other shops. Funny enough, on can clearly see postcards on sale in the front windows. The card probably bought in a store just like this one.

The card was sent from Shanghai to maritime military base in Brest, France. The receiver was Jean Gaget, an officer on the French navy ship Dupetit-Thouard, an armored cruiser. Since the card was sent from a friend to a navy soldier, it was probably sent by a mariner on a stopover in Shanghai.