A stone’s throw away from the Bund, the nearly 150 year old Jixiang Li is perhaps Shanghai’s oldest surviving shikumen in Shanghai. It was built four years after Xingren Li, the earliest recorded shikumen (demolished in 1980). Jixiang Li used to be 24 blocks, but only eight remain today. Today it is still a labyrinth of intimate, narrow alleys, with life spread out for anyone to see: underwear hung out to dry, a basket of vegetables left on the stone sink, boxes of odds and ends stacked on makeshift shelves. It feels like accidentally stumbling into someone’s kitchen.