Stores and Shops

The Sun Company
Along with the Sun-Sun, the Sincere and the Wing On department stores, all founded by overseas Chinese, the Sun Company was one of the leading department stores on Nanking Road. The last to be built, it was the first to have an escalator; people flocked in just for the novelty of riding up the one flight. Thanks to its prime location at the intersection of Nanking and Thibet Roads, it has enjoyed a thriving business from is opening in 1936 to this day. On a typical day one million people are said to pass by its entrances. Its present name reflects its status in Shanghai: "The No.1 Department Store".
Deutsche Werkstaetten Shanghai

Most of the old shop signs in Shanghai have long since been overpainted with Chinese ideographs. This one will undoubtedly soon disappear also. This small "art furnishings and interior decoration" shop was a family-run operation, by early German refugees, and was sought out by many of Shanghai's "young moderns"  in the thirties to enhance the Art Deco interiors of their apartments.

This western-style department store lies on Chung Wha (Zhonghua) Road, a part of the circular road which was built on the site of the moat and old city walls surrounding the "native city". Since it is located inside the former wall, it is not listed in any shanghai Directory, which covered buildings only in foreign concessions. However its convenient location-only two blocks in from the French Bund (the Quai de France)-assured that this large store would have enjoyed the best of two worlds: both western and Chinese customers. Since most foreigners today visit only the Old City Temple in "old town", the store probably now serves only the latter.
Calbeck Macgregor &  Company

This family-run firm-this time British-built a Tudor cottage, called Macgregor House, for its downtown office on Foochow Road just off the Bund. There it is a charming anachronism, dwarfed by the massive granite office buildings around it. It specialized in wines and spirits, acting as agent for such notable firms as Pommery of Reims, Booths of London, Martini & Rossi of Italy and J.Walker of the United State-such was the cosmopolitan clientele of Shanghai between the wars.