[Part 2] Shamei Mansion / 沙美大楼

You know how sometimes, just after you see it, you have a building in mind and you just can’t get it out of your head? Haha I guess most people cannot really understand what I am talking about but anyway, that is what happened to me a few days ago in Shanghai when I met… this beauty!

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Shamei Mansion, Nov 2016

To know some basic facts about this building, you can read my first post about it. But when I posted that report, I had not had a proper chance to explore all its floors from inside yet…

Well this is now done! Today, I could sneak in and finally enjoy the place before going away (I will leave Shanghai tomorrow morning!). By the way, I thank my new Chinese friend for showing me around, it was a real pleasure to meet you like this!

So the building is in fact completely empty because it is labelled as « dangerous » (危房). The reason is that it is made out of sand from the sea and not from rivers, so it does not have such a safe structure: after only a few decades, it threatened to collapse… According to my friend, it is not clear what will happen to the building, if it will get repaired or demolished.

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Pillar with white band-aid, Shamei Mansion, Nov 2016

And yet, it seemed to me that, even if this place was old and needed fixing, but still, it was in a pretty decent shape.

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Staircase with former elevator area, Shamei Mansion, Nov 2016

 The large windows from another time had simply amazing views.

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K6 window, Shamei Mansion, Nov 2016
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View from a window, Shamei Mansion, Nov 2016
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Windows, Shamei Mansion, Nov 2016
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Top floor window, Shamei Mansion, Nov 2016

The balconies are also very interesting, with delicate iron shapes and decorations carved in the stone on the walls.

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View from balcony, Shamei Mansion, Nov 2016
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View from a balcony, Shamei Mansion, Nov 2016

I will still warn anybody who wants to visit this place: it is extremely dangerous, with large holes from the fifth floor all the way down.

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Dangerous hole, Shamei Mansion, Nov 2016

I went up to the rooftop, and the view from there was extremely beautiful as it you have great angles and visions of all sides of the city…

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On the roof, Shamei Mansion, Nov 2016

Then, the night slowly fell, and up there, I could enjoy some evening views of the city.

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City view, Shamei Mansion, Nov 2016
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City view, Shamei Mansion, Nov 2016

Unfortunately, I had to go home, as I have a plane tomorrow! These are first images of this beautiful building but as you can imagine, I will replace them as soon as possible with better photos. See you next time!

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Last vision of the building, Shamei Mansion, Nov 2016

3 thoughts on “[Part 2] Shamei Mansion / 沙美大楼

  1. It was a delight to read about this exploration! Your two blog entries on Shamei Mansion are the most comprehensive (modern) source of information on this building, so thank you for writing this! Here’s an old photo of it back in the 1930s: https://pastvu.com/p/779296

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