The Wutong Quarter: Plane Trees, Art Deco Villas, and the Best Walk in Asia
Known locally as the Wutong (Plane-Tree) Quarter, this leafy grid across Xuhui and Huangpu rewards the unhurried flâneur.
If the Bund is the formal portrait Shanghai presents to the world, the Wutong Quarter is its private diary. Spanning western Huangpu and eastern Xuhui, it is not a ticketed attraction but a living residential canopy of London plane trees, 1920s Spanish and Art Deco villas, independent roasters, and neighborhood wine bars.
Divide your walk into two movements. Begin at László Hudec’s wedge-shaped 1924 Wukang Mansion, drift north along Wukang Road into the café-and-boutique theater of Anfu Road and Wuyuan Road, then cross east toward Fuxing Middle Road and Nanchang Road, where vinyl listening bars and thirty-year-old lane kitchens sit side by side.