Old Villas
Old villas are Shanghai’s most classic residences. These exotic garden villas mostly have prominent backgrounds or romantic stories full of poetry and painting.…
Old Villas, Shanghai
Key facts
- Getting there
- Near the Shaanxi South Road–Yanan Middle Road bus stop, Shaanxi South Road metro station Kadoorie Residence: Not only is its exterior magnificent, but its interior is even more luxurious. The main hall and living rooms are all finished with imported Italian marble, so entering the hall feels like stepping into a marble palace. It is known as the “Marble Mansion.” Today it is a popular filming location for many TV dramas.; Near the Fuxing Middle Road–Ruijin Er Road bus stop Chen Lifu Former Residence: Located at 16 Dongping Road, this century-old garden house in Spanish architectural style has been fully preserved in its original structure. The garden contains ten trees nearly a century old: camphor, southern magnolia, wintersweet and orange trees, adding deep cultural character. It is now the restaurant “Heping Guandi (和平官邸).”
- Guidebook rating
- 4 / 5
From China Self Guided Travel 2025, page 926. Open in Google Maps
About Old Villas
Old villas are Shanghai’s most classic residences. These exotic garden villas mostly have prominent backgrounds or romantic stories full of poetry and painting. Their fairy-tale charm was once the envy of everyone, and today’s young people also dream of these luxurious buildings.
Hengshan Road is lined with garden houses once owned by powerful and wealthy figures of the past. It starts at Huaihai Middle Road in the former French Concession and continues to Xujiahui, with consulate buildings nearby. Dense French plane trees line both sides of the road, sheltering old buildings full of mysterious stories. Many of these old houses on Hengshan Road, with their vintage street lamps, have been refurbished and repurposed. For example, the residence of Xi Deyi, former governor of the Central Bank of the Nationalist Government, became the Shanghai-style restaurant “Xijia Garden (席家花园),” and the mansion of H. H. Kung (孔祥熙) became the Shanghai Film Studio. More and more old villas have been turned into distinctive restaurants and bars, now the most popular dating spots for young people.
Lilac Garden: Said to be where Li Hongzhang (李鸿章) kept his hidden love, this is an American-style garden villa. Building No. 3 houses a library with many rare books and antiquities. To the south of the garden lies a large expanse of green lawn with classically styled park benches.
Tips from the guidebook
- On the same road, No. 9 Dongping Road was the residence of Chiang Kai-shek and Soong Mei-ling, known as “Ai Lu (爱庐).” It now belongs to the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and is temporarily closed to the public.
Frequently asked questions
How do I get to Old Villas?
Near the Shaanxi South Road–Yanan Middle Road bus stop, Shaanxi South Road metro station Kadoorie Residence: Not only is its exterior magnificent, but its interior is even more luxurious. The main hall and living rooms are all finished with imported Italian marble, so entering the hall feels like stepping into a marble palace. It is known as the “Marble Mansion.” Today it is a popular filming location for many TV dramas.; Near the Fuxing Middle Road–Ruijin Er Road bus stop Chen Lifu Former Residence: Located at 16 Dongping Road, this century-old garden house in Spanish architectural style has been fully preserved in its original structure. The garden contains ten trees nearly a century old: camphor, southern magnolia, wintersweet and orange trees, adding deep cultural character. It is now the restaurant “Heping Guandi (和平官邸).”
Where is Old Villas?
Old Villas is in Shanghai, Shanghai Municipality, in the East China of China. 849 Huashan Road Moller Villa: A Nordic Norwegian-style building designed after a dream of the daughter of British merchant Moller, creating a fairy-tale world. The castle features pointed and sloped roofs of varying heights and uneven walls. The garden contains six brick-and-timber buildings of different heights, with 106 rooms in total. It is now the Hengshan Moller Villa Hotel.; 30 Shaanxi South Road; 64 Yanan West Road Mali Shi Garden: One of the most beautiful private residences in old Shanghai, composed of four villas in different styles: a modern Japanese building, a Viennese garden house, an English country-style villa, and a French neoclassical palace villa. It is now the Ruijin Guesthouse (瑞金宾馆), once a favourite choice for heads of state staying in Shanghai. The executive rooms overlooking the large garden, at over ¥2,000 a night, are worth trying. The garden has many restaurants, including Xiao Nan Guo (小南国), which serves traditional Shanghai cuisine; Lanna Thai Restaurant, which serves authentic Thai food; and several simple Western restaurants. These are all places where you can sit quietly and savour the legendary stories of the old house. Just outside the hotel is the famous Ruijin Road, a street of foreign-trade shops that is perfect for leisurely browsing.; 118 Ruijin Er Road, Ruijin Guesthouse
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