Cafes in Shanghai

I select some old photos here, all taken by me on various phones (Nokia ones I think) and cameras during a visit to Shanghai in 2008. This collection of photos is all about local cafes.

It is believed that the people in northern China usually prefer tea, while Shanghai, which always has great influence on the eastern part of China, is well known for more coffee. You can see the importance of cafes in Ang Lee’s award-winning movie Lust, Caution (2007).

In the old Shanghai, cafe used to be a symbol of social status. Maybe now still?

Shanghai has been never short of good cafes, including many run by expats who often view Shanghai as the “Paris in the Orient”. Those nice coffee shops sometimes make Shanghai suddenly feel more like a small town in Europe and they also become the sources of ideas and connections for many.

In this collection of old photos, unfortunately the Hanyuan Bookstore (which was also a cafe) was closed in 2018 for various reasons.

Hanyuan used to be late Hong Kong celebrity Leslie Cheung’s favourite. Leslie once said he loved to hide himself inside Hanyuan just for a whole afternoon of books and coffee when he had work in Shanghai.

For more photography by me: mrshangkong.com

Pak Sha Road

Pak Sha Road (白沙道) is a quite short path in the Lee Gardens area in Causeway Bay.

The little path helps to connect different properties of Lee Gardens and houses several nice local cafes and grocery shops including perhaps the most famous one for Shanghainese foodstuff, the Old San Yang (老三陽). (Hint: now it is the hairy crab season!)

Hong Kong’s only official Leica coffee shop is also located on Pak Sha Road, named after a Chinese philosopher Chan Pak Sha who was born and remained active during the Ming dynasty. You won’t miss the Leica place when you walk around the area, given its high profile graffiti which already has the whole building covered.

There are some nice restaurants and cafes, including one selling Taiwan beef rice and the other well known for the mixture of international coffee and Chinese tea. You can certainly explore more inside the three shopping malls of Lee Gardens.

If the nearby SOGO is considered more for the ordinary, the Hysan is more for the middle-class, and then Lee Gardens certainly has more luxury brands for the rich to study.

Related reading: Basao Tea

Basao Tea

I always wanted to try this elegant cafe in Causeway Bay but it was always full of people plus a long queue of customers in waiting outside.

Fortunately we dropped by the shop and happened to grab a table easily today. The cafe is famous for its fusion-style combination of coffee and tea (including Chinese tea like Da Hong Pao (大紅袍). I don’t like sweet coffee, hence coffee with tea flavour tastes pretty good for me.

The cafe is located on Pak Sha Road (白沙道), a short path in CwB that is easily neglected by many. But the whole street is really a hidden gem for CwB. There are many other fun places in the same street also for you to explore. CwB is not just about all the shopping malls. Actually, Pak Sha Road feels more like a small town in Europe.

微博，十年

這週參加一個晚宴，居然同桌偶遇一個微博「粉絲」，話說都已經追蹤我微博十年有餘，還同鄰桌其他朋友介紹說，這就是「滬港小生」，真是令我有些慚愧。自己沒想過有那麼大影響力，也覺得最近幾年因為這樣那樣的原因，微博上的文字分享也不如以往那麼豐富⋯⋯

科技發展真的很快，我確實屬於比較早一批開始玩微博的，也可能是因為自己本來做記者的原因，對社交媒體上手比較快。因為微博，我認識了不少朋友（或者說網友），以前也確實經常有發生在現實生活中以「你就是滬港小生」這樣的緣由做互相問候的開場白。

也因為微博，我也吃過不少苦頭，十年前可能還比較意氣用事，別人說你一句，你忍不住最好回十句。這十年，也因為這樣那樣的原因，期間也考慮過好像其他朋友一樣，不如停了微博，眼不見為淨，也越來越不知道還可以說什麼，越來越不確定什麼不可以說。

人生苦短，特別是不惑之年之後，如果一件事情太折騰，不如不做，浪費大家時間。

這十年上微博，最欣慰莫過於偶爾收到一些不認識的朋友的私訊，比如有一個大學生給我發消息說，因為經常看我微博，最終決定來香港大學讀新聞，她覺得改變了她的人生。那一刻，我真的覺得原來自己的文字和分享確實可以影響到他人，我想這也是很多曾經的同行選擇做新聞的初衷。

不知道十年後我們會在哪裡，也不知道十年後的微博會變成什麼樣子。最近我也在學習研究元宇宙，特別是自己公司的產品，比如附圖是Horizon Workrooms，大家可以在3D環境中工作，回郵件、做電話會議等等，都可以。要想認識工作以外的朋友，還可以在其他的元宇宙社區中找到不同主題活動。

微博也好，元宇宙也好，最終能吸引我們都是因為影響力。一個人的言行可以影響很多人，是好是壞，每個人都有機會，也都有責任。當然，每個人的境界不盡相同，這也是為什麼微博上不必太多爭辯的原因。畢竟，林子大了，什麼樣的鳥都有。

對，我就是那個滬港小生，微博上的那個。

My Ray-Ban Stories

I really love my Ray-Ban Stories, a very nice addition to my Ricoh GR3 camera for street photography.

Ask any street photographer, and they will definitely tell you one of their biggest worries is to miss a moment. Timing sometimes means everything for photography.

I still carry my GR3 for photography but Ray-Ban Stories can make sure you won’t miss any moment you want to catch and the image quality proves far better than expected.

With a little bit post-shooting editing (I mean “cropping”; I don’t usually add filter effects to my photos as I want to keep them organic and natural), your photos are at least good enough for your Instagram.

Technology is amazing, as always.

Disclaimer: The author is a Facebook employee. Facebook collaborates with Ray-Ban for the smart sunglasses Ray-Ban Stories. All photos for this article are shot on Ray-Ban Stories by the author in Hong Kong; no filter.