She was sitting very still when I first noticed her. Inside the community center in Xujiahui, the noise of conversation echoed faintly off tiled floors, but she seemed to exist in a quieter pocket of space. A brown baseball cap rested low on her head, and she wore a flowery, patterned cotton jacket—the kind you might see in older photographs, or in villages far from Shanghai’s glass towers. Her hands lay folded in her lap, as if holding onto something invisible. I hesitated b

The State hospitals in downtown Shanghai bustled with people’s murmurs and the mechanical voice of the queue management system. Yet nearby, a Traditional Chinese Medicine clinic sat quietly inside People’s Pharmacy. The clinic Dr. Hu works at Dr. Hu was sitting by the counter, speaking ardently about modern development and medical principles of Chinese Medicine with a medicine book opened in front of her. “Traditional Chinese Medicine is not developing very well now,” she s

Going upstairs, we stepped into Tapatapa, a Spanish restaurant known for its classical Paella. There’s nothing more appealing than its cozy atmosphere. Amidst the chitchats, every space is filled with warming light bulbs, pine trees, and gleaming decorations, soft cushions lying on the wooden chair. “Hi! I’m Kevin, the manager here. Table for two?” The greeting was done in his glimmer of a smile, corresponding with the warmth of the surroundings. We followed him to enter the