A walk through history

Participants of a walking tour pose for a group photo Saturday.

Some 130 expats from 27 countries, including 12 consul generals in Shanghai, gathered on Wukang Road in Xuhui district Saturday afternoon to visit a dozen historic buildings.

As a special activity to mark China Culture Inheritance Day, which is held on the second Saturday of June each year, expatriates from the local consulates, culture exchange centers and chambers of commerce, as well as foreigners interested in Chinese history, culture and architecture, joined the tour.

Wukang Road, once known as Route Ferguson, built in 1907, is home to more than 30 protected historic buildings built in several Western architectural styles. Former residents include revolutionary leader Huang Xing and literary giant Ba Jin.

"I walked down this road many times, but this was the first time that I paid close attention to the buildings," said Irina Beleva, Bulgaria's consul general in Shanghai, after the tour. "It is a good opportunity for expats to learn more about Shanghai. Today, I enjoyed the beauty of the houses along the road a lot."

Accompanied by English-speaking guides, the visiting expats were allowed inside some of the buildings on Wukang Road usually closed to the public.

The visits were a highlight of the activity for Jun Sung-jin, a member of the Korean Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai. "When I come across a historic building, I usually can only learn about it through the brief introduction posted on the wall, but that's not enough to know what it was like in the old days," said Jun, who has lived in Shanghai for 20 years.

The Shanghai Municipal Administration of Cultural Heritage organized the event, called Shanghai Historical Buildings Visit for International Friends, as a way to build public awareness for historic building preservation, according to the event's press release.

The organizer also put together an orienteering for about 60 visitors in the afternoon. The orienteering was something of a scavenger hunt or reality television show competition that required visitors, who had been split into some 15 groups, to explore Wukang Road and its surrounding buildings and complete a series of tasks.

With a bilingual map provided by the organizers in hand, Sjoerd van Elferen, a lawyer from the Netherlands, arrived at the first station with his three partners soon after the activity started. The first stop was the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra building, where Elferen's group had to write the Chinese word for lane on a piece of paper with a writing brush.

After writing the word, they went on to complete the rest of their tasks, such as buying vegetables at a nearby market, finishing a jigsaw puzzle and playing folk games such as juggling a shuttlecock with their feet.

"It might be a bit boring if we just walked around," Elferen told the Global Times, "but the small tasks made the activity more fun."

He added that the most interesting thing during the tour was navigating the street, seeing its beautiful buildings from inside.

One of his teammates, Alex Colburn, from the US, said that the lush trees along the road and its quiet surroundings impressed him the most.

That afternoon Colburn tried playing a hoop rolling game that many Chinese used to play when they were young. "I've never played it before," he said. "It is interesting, though difficult."