Visiting So ZeBasilica (She Shan today) is now a short trip to the Shanghai outskirts. As mentioned in a previous post, it used to be quite a long trip in Old Shanghai (see post “Climbing So Ze” for more information). I recently found the following old picture of the area.
I have lost the exact reference from the actual document, but it has to be after 1935 when the Basilica was opened. Since the short article mentions the war in Shanghai, I guess the pictures dates from 1938, right after the Japanese Invasion of Shanghai.
In any case, this picture is strikingly different from the current view of the countryside around She Shan. Massive villa compounds and hotels have been built in the recent years, replacing the rice fields. She Shan is now linked to the city by a metroline and urban development around this area is far from over. Just as a comparison, the picture below was taken from the Basilica in 2008. The area is the one on the bottom of the old picture. Quite a change really.
Update 2020
Thanks to drone technology, aerial photos have become