Zen and the art of old-style living

2015-12-07 Source: China Daily

The cozy interiors of some of the bed-and-breakfast facilities in Shanghai

As harried mothers coax their children from bed, there is a clinking of milk bottles outside as the delivery man does his daily rounds, and for Barnybas Covey this is as reliable a guide as the finest Swiss watch that it is 7 am.

He zigzags through quilts and mops that dangle from clothes-lines hanging above the alley, and around the corner he grabs a few dabing, baked pancakes that are a breakfast staple in Shanghai. A new day lies ahead.

Covey, from Hawaii, was in Shanghai for two weeks this summer for a field study, and he chose to stay in a renovated abode hidden in a square of red-roofed terrace houses that once formed the city's most typical residences, shikumen, or stone-framed gate house. On the hottest days of summer the sprawling, rickety branches of phoenix trees offer shady respite to the housing complex, which stands on a street more than 100 years old. Keeping them company all year round are the nearby luxury shops and five-star hotels of the city center.

When he was looking for a place to stay on the online lodging rental site Airbnb, he says, a key factor for him was that it represent the old Shanghai.

The place he eventually chose is one of many bed-and-breakfast facilities that have emerged in the city. More than 2,000 such lodgings are now available for rent on the likes of Airbnb and its Chinese counterparts tujia.com and mayi.com, and about 70 percent of the popular ones are in the shikumen houses downtown, says Chen Ning, head of mayi.com in Shanghai.

B&B facilities have become an attractive lodging option for domestic and foreign young travelers in recent years, he says, because they allow them to be closer to local communities and to immerse themselves in the culture.

Covey's stay in the rustic old estate was much better than he expected, he says, and it gave him the opportunity to see at close hand what makes the city and the country tick.

"The Bund is an irresistible haunt for visitors, but that's only the glamorous face of the city, while the old neighborhoods with their decades-old bricks and tiles are where life really goes on."

On summer evenings, locals' dinner tables are usually moved out into the lanes, where residents, many in pajamas, eat and drink beer.

People, old and young, gather in the lane with their bamboo chairs, deckchairs and fans to enjoy the pleasant coolness in the open air until they return home to go to bed.

Covey joined the locals in a backyard of the houses. "They told me about the community's past and said a house in the area cost at least 20 gold bars in the old days," he says.

That kind of nightlife, very different to what foreign visitors experience in a bar in the former French Concession area, is the stuff of lifetime memories, he says.

"The commercial streets just one block or two away from the community are ever-changing but you feel as though you've stepped back in time in the shikumen community. However busy, crowded and international the outside world is, it's always peaceful and serene here, as if the old life has never faded away."

Covey says his Shanghai neighbors told him a blurry line had formed between public and private spaces over time because rooms in the old communities were simple and very small, and three or four households usually have to share a single kitchen and a washroom in two- and three-story shikumen houses.

Covey was fortunate to have his own washroom in the B&B establishment, because most of the operators, who are often young, experienced travelers who have been educated overseas, rent the houses and renovate them to combine one of the old Shanghai flavor and modern elements, and furnish each with appliances and furniture.

One operator is Jiang Yuan. He rented a 40-square-meter apartment on the first floor of a three-story shikumen house a year ago, spent about 140,000 yuan ($22,000) sprucing up the interior and installed furniture and electric appliances. He now charges 800 yuan a day for the accommodation, which is listed on Airbnb.

His simple abode stands out from modern hotels with its old world charm, and that is the big selling point, he says.

"Hotel rooms, no matter how fancy they are, all seem much the same once you've shut the door behind you."

Jiang, a freelance interior designer, once stayed at a friend's home for several months while he was looking for a job in Shanghai after he graduated. He enjoyed the experience so much that he decided to repay the favor by running a B&B to accommodate backpackers from home and abroad.

He has a love for Japanese culture so decided to infuse the space with a theme to reflect this. He transformed the 10-square-meter yard at the entrance into an zen-like space with a glass roof, bamboo, decorative stones and tatami mats. Inside he added a touch of modernity by using remote-controlled lights.

Business can at times be overwhelming, especially when he decides to advertise on multiple platforms, says Jiang, who was born in Northeast China and raised in Shanghai.

However, turning a profit is not his main preoccupation, he says. Rather, the business is more about a sense of sharing and making new friends. He has had more than 100 people stay at his B&B since it opened, and many have become his good friends. He frequently uses the revenue to buy additional furnishing for the home, he says, because this helps "create a positive cycle".

Lodging is not the only service that Jiang provides. Stefan Schmid from Germany, who spent two weeks in Jiang's B&B since late October, says Jiang took him on tours to the surrounding old communities and bustling shopping districts, getting him to taste local delicacies and telling him stories about the city.

"He taught me how to use chopsticks and introduced me to his friends, an experience that I would never have had if I had stayed in a regular hotel," says Schmid, who traveled to Shanghai to do art photography.

Jiang says he calls the place a life experience space. "I hope B&Bs are not seen as a better option to hotels simply because of the lower prices. I hope that more people will respect those who are willing to open and share their homes, and hopefully the place feels like home for them."

However, not all is love and peace in the realm of these B&Bs with some locals, particularly the elderly fervently opposing them.

An operator of 10 B&Bs in the shikumen communities downtown, who prefers to be referred to as Xixi, says that occasionally neighbors knock on the door and complain about noise, especially when young people rent an apartment and decide to have a rousing good time.

"Poor sound insulation is a common failing of the decades-old houses," she says.

Unlike Xixi, Jiang tries to keep what he is doing from his neighbors. "It's like being the driver of an illegal taxi. I simply cannot own up to what is really going on."

Under Chinese law, a hotel must be registered with industry and commerce authorities and pass fire safety and sanitation checks. Although the B&B industry is thriving, such lodging options fall within a gray area in terms of legitimate commercial operations.

Yang Anna, a Shanghai native who rented six shikumen apartments downtown and turned them into B&Bs, says she consulted the authorities before starting her business and discovered there was no business license that applies to them.

Problems can arise when such accommodation is unprotected by law, lawyers say.

"If the guest engages in illegal activities in the residences, the owner of the house is liable," says Fu Zhongwen, a senior partner at Long'an Law Firm in Shanghai.

Online rental sites encourage the operators of B&B accommodation and lodgers not to trade without an intermediary as this will make it hard for mediation to take place.

"As both parties have registered their real names on our platform, we can help deal with disputes if any arise," Chen of mayi.com says.

One common dispute is a guest reckoning that the apartment is nothing like it is depicted in photos.

"Our solution is to use professional photographers to ensure that any difference between the photo and reality is minimal," Chen says.

Tourism sources say the unlicensed operation of B&B facilities is a common problem on the Chinese mainland. But the burgeoning sector must be brought under supervision of the government because it will flourish very quickly with the soaring development of independent travel.

"Before the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, nearly 600 households in the traditional quadrangle dwellings of Beijing were designated as special guesthouses for domestic and foreign visitors, and 33 are still there," says Zhang Guangrui, honorary director of the Tourism Research Center at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

"The tourism authority in Shanghai can learn from this and make such shikumen a legitimate business to look after the rights of the B&B operators and safeguard the rights and interests of travelers, who can better appreciate local communities through such living."