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[Offbeat]: Checking in on the Y

The first time I went to New York I stayed at the YMCA. I didn't know anyone in the city, I'd heard that Americans didn't really do backpacking, and when I asked around at JFK for a hostel, they threa...
Last updated: 2015-11-09
The first time I went to New York I stayed at the YMCA. I didn't know anyone in the city, I'd heard that Americans didn't really do backpacking, and when I asked around at JFK for a hostel, they threatened to lock me up. So the Greenpoint Y seemed like a good bet. I was a young man, I was new in town, and I had no qualms about putting my pride on the shelf. What I didn't know was that modern-day YMCA's, at least in down-at-heel Brooklyn, serve principally as halfway houses between prison and the street. The guy in the room next-door had been there two and a half years; in the communal bathroom I was told there was only one shower that didn't belong to someone. I didn��t wash for a week.

So following the YMCA trail around Shanghai in recent weeks felt pleasantly familiar: boarded up doors, groups of men sleeping on cardboard cut-outs, noodles being busily reheated on crappy stoves. It's all a far cry from the days when dapper men in suits lounged about the lobby. Currently the look, at least at the main buildings in People's Square, is rather more industrial.



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The Young Men's Christian Association began their mission here in the 1880s, and by the '20s and '30s their various sporting and recreational facilities had become hugely popular with the downtown, turned-down crowd; a less snobby equivalent of places like the Columbia Club, out in what was then the sticks. At the movement's peak, there were five YMCA buildings in Shanghai: the Chinese branch (whose gutted lobby you see above), a separate Chinese headquarters, one for the Japanese, one for the foreigners, and the Navy Y. (It appears that back then they were not as open to all faiths and creeds; Others explain the distinction in more detail, and point out that there were also three YWCAs.)

Absent the boxing rings, bible classes, and soda fountains, however, the sparkle has rather gone out of these grand old buildings. With a little imagination, though, you can still have fun -- biking between them makes for an unusual and unique tour of the city. And it pays to be cockily creative -- to wander in for a look around as if your membership dues of old are still valid, to try dusty door-handles to find out if they give.

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The Chinese Y is a good place to start. At the time it was built, in 1931, it was something of a first. In their early years in China, the movement maintained that all their buildings ought to be Western in style; it denoted "progressiveness," they said. But, like good missionaries everywhere, they quickly realized the advantages of striking a more culturally harmonious chord. So in came architect Li Jinpei, and up went the building on Xizang Lu. It's been a boarding house of one sort or another ever since and, judging by the renovation going on there at present, it'll soon be a rather more upmarket hotel than its predecessor.

Officially, it's still off limits, but with a few soft words (and some even softer steps) you can enjoy some rather special views.



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It's a similar story at the Foreign Y, a short walk away on Nanjing Road -- now all gutted interiors and exposed wiring. Built even earlier, and most recently home to the Shanghai Sports Administration Bureau, it looks like something a little grander is now in the works here, too. (A good thing too; it's a stunning building, long overshadowed by the taller Park Hotel right beside it.) Security are a little less welcoming -- a shame as the second floor swimming pool apparently still survives (notes Tina Kanagaratnam, in a neat little history, "men and women swam on alternate days, because the men swam nude") -- and the closest you can get for now is the back staircase of the Park Hotel, for a view of the work being done to the roof. Roofs evidently meant a lot to the folks at the Y. One of the principal objections to incorporating traditional curved eaves in the design for the Chinese branch was that it meant wasting good roof space. Roofs were for volleyball, not architectural flair.



Though the other three Y locations are perhaps a little less grand of design, they retain a greater share of the bustle -- more of that damp, cramped, frequented feel -- that must have typified them in their heyday.

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There's no memorial plaque for the Japanese YMCA, but the terraced '20s blocks that housed them are still standing on what was once Range Road (and is now only a few steps away from Chinatown). And, a short distance south of the Creek, the headquarters of the Chinese Y and the Navy YMCA still face on to one another across Sichuan Lu. Rather fittingly, the Chinese HQ (pictures then and now below) is used today -- at least in part -- for short-term lodgings. En-suite rooms at the Chuan Gang Hotel (6339 1128) start at 68rmb an hour.



You can stay at the old Navy Y too: it's now the Shanghai Hong Kong City Health Entertainment Club Co. Ltd (6321 1889). (Evidently they learnt nothing about the value of a good acronym.) In the spirit of those who built the place, you can even get up on the roof for a look around. Be careful though, the top-floor door is alarmed.

It could be far worse. Sidney Rittenburg lodged at the Navy Y in late 1945 (at that time it had been converted into an army hostel), and wrote about it in The Man Who Stayed Behind:

On my second morning at the YMCA, I got up early so I was the first to open the front door. I stepped outside and stumbled. A frozen corpse lay stretched out on the threshold. It was a Chinese man, perhaps in his early forties, wearing layers of thin cotton clothes. He had wrapped himself in a tattered rush mat when he lay down to go to sleep. It had not been enough to protect him from that cold November night.

And there was me bitching about shared showers...



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Collect The Set

Chinese YMCA, 123 Xizang Nan Lu, near Jinling Dong Lu

Foreign YMCA, 150 Nanjing Xi Lu, near Huanghe Lu

Headquarters of the YMCA of China, 599 Sichuan Lu, near Beijing Lu

Japanese YMCA, 206 Wujin Lu, near Zhapu Lu

Navy YMCA, 630 Sichuan Lu, near Xianggang Lu

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More pictures from the past here.



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