SHANGHAI HAUNTED ARCHITECTURE

Architecture is beyond art and creates a link with the deepest parts of this world, offering a connection with the esoteric and even the spiritual.

In other articles, we explored the connection of architecture and mathematics, numbers and sacred geometries, connecting in many cases with the world of superstition and magic. For those that feel attracted to the world of mystery, architecture offers a container of emotions and memories that could keep stored and manifested over the years. This is the origin of many stories of haunted buildings and cursed places with special energy fields that link with the unknown.

 Haunted House - Source Smarter Travel

With over 5,000 years of history, China has a long tradition of spirits and ghosts dwelling in buildings and public places, from the wiles of eunuchs in Beijing to the deserted mansions in Shanghai.

 SHANGHAI ARCHITECTURE AND MISTERY

Due to the rich heritage present in the city, it is rather probable that many of the old constructions in the city will hold stories, myths, and legends that will attract curiosity.

The city is full of buildings, streets, stations, and alleys that are covered by a cloud of mystery and inviting to create the legend. Some of these places recently became icons for esoteric tourism.

In this list, several places have been reported to be haunted from metro stations to cemeteries and including very celebrated buildings, 

 Ghosts of Shanghai - Source Kenilworth Books

 QIU MANSON

Weihai Lu, near Shimen Yi Lu

Probably it is the most known mystery story in the city that dates back nearly one hundred years ago, when the Qiu brothers, two peasant migrant workers to Shanghai made a fortune and decided to build two lavish identical mansions in a luxury style and surrounded by a garden full of exotic animals. After they disappeared from their public life and the house and the full collection of animals that included tigers and crocodiles were completely abandoned,

After fled, one of the mansions was demolished to give way to a high-rise construction and the other one was finally moves to another location in 2009.

During the renovation this year, construction workers reported animal attacks, strange animal bite marks, giving birth to the legend that the place was haunted by the spirits of the abandoned animals.

Qiu Mansion - Source Flickr (Image by Zoe)

WUKANG MANSION

1850 Huaihai Zhong Lu, near Wukang Lu

The Wukang Mansion is probably the most captured construction in the city, and as with many other celebrated constructions, it also has its own haunted story. Formerly known as the Normandie Apartment, the building was designed by the famous Hungarian architect Ladislav Hudec.

During the Cultural Revolution of 1966–76, the building was renamed as the Anti-Revisionist Tower, although the local residents referred to it as "The Diving Board" because of the dozens of suicides committed at that time by people under prosecution who jumped from the roof of the iconic construction.

Wukang Mansion - Source Amey Kandalgaonkar (ArchiPanic)

It is also believed that in the year 1968, the famous actress of the moment Shangguan Yunzhu, from the balcony of her flat.

Forty years later, an expat resident of the Wukang Mansion reported the presence of Shangguan Yunzhu’s ghost, reliving the legend of the haunted building.

Some other visitors and residents still claim that they can still smell the actress's perfume under the door of her apartment, abandoned since then.

THE PARAMOUNT THEATRE

218 Yuyuan Lu, near Huashan Lu

In the happy 30s, the Paramount was one of the coolest places in the city and a meeting place for the elites eager to visit the luxurious ballroom for long nights of dancing and drinking. During those years the Paramount was also the meeting club for shakers and the gangsters of the city.

With good drinks, music, and beautiful dancers, the club was always full of visitors, especially those looking for a private taxi dancer (a lady that the guest could pay to be a private dancer for some time).

Paramount Theatre - Source Trip Advisor

In the year 1941, during the Japanese occupation of the city, one of the staff members, a taxi dancer named Chen Manli, refused to dance with a Japanese officer that was kicked out of the club.

It is said the soldier managed to sneak into the Theatre again and manage to shoot the dancer in revenge for the affront.

Although the story was forgotten, a few years after the event and especially during the renovation works of the theatre and the ballroom, many workers have witnessed the silhouette of Chen Manli ghost silently dancing on the dance stage of the fourth floor. In some other cases, after the club was closed, music has been reported to be playing with none inside the salons.

YAN’AN PILLAR

218 Yuyuan Lu, near Huashan Lu

Shanghai Yan’an Road Elevated Ring was opened to the public in the mid-90s. Since then, thousands of vehicles have run this busy road. Nobody could imagine that the structure of this infrastructure hides one of the most famous stories of haunted places in the city.

Among all the concrete pillars that support the highway, there a particular one usually known as the Dragon Pillar. The pillar outstands from the rest, not only because of its particular design and because is larger and thicker but also because of the story behind it.

Dragon Pillar - Source Thatsmags com

During the construction of the highway in the year 1995, engineers could not manage to drill the ground in that area, needed for the pillar foundation. It was a Buddhist monk of the area that explained to them that that place was not possible to be drilled because it was crossed by the “Dragon veins”.

To avoid further delays, local authorities invited monks and Fengshui masters to check the site and try to come up with a possible solution. It was a monk from the Jade Buddha Temple (some other theories say from the Longhua Temple) the one who performed a ceremony at the place where the guardian dragon rested, reciting ancient scriptures. The monk also requested to cover the pillar with nine bronze dragons covering a full metal pillar wrap.

After the ceremony, the monk passed away a few days after, making the Dragon Pillar remains one of the best-known urban legends in Shanghai.

PACIFIC DEPARTMENT STORE

932 Hengshan Lu, near Huashan Lu

The Pacific Department Store was established in Shanghai in 1993. Located in the downtown district of Xujiahui, it has been one of the flagship shopping malls of the area and traditionally one of the most visited. It has also been known and popular due to some strange music linked with the building.

Pacific Department Store - Source Trip Advisor

Many visitors have been surprised and bothered due to an ongoing melody repeated once and again in the building loudspeakers. The repeated song is the classic children’s melody 'Baobei Duibuqi' ('Darling, I'm Sorry'),

Apart from the tiredness and the constant bothering of the melody repetition, this would not have anything to do with a haunted story except for the fact that the building was erected on a former cemetery used by a orphans’ nursery across the road. After the nursery was demolished, the department store was built. It was son during and after the construction when guards alerted about listening to children's cries and laughter despite there being no one else in the building.

The origin of the music has been linked with the recommendations given by some Fengshui masters that were brought to the site. Since then, the store has been playing the nursery rhyme day and night to appease the spirits of the dead and apologize to those who were resting in peace at the site that today has been occupied by the mall.

CAOBAO METRO STATION

218 Yuyuan Lu, near Huashan Lu

The Caobao metro station is an interchange station between Line 1 and Line 12 of the Shanghai Metro network. Located in the city downtown, in Xuhui District, this station is part of the line that opened on 28 May 1993 and became an interchange station with the opening of Line 12 in the year 2015. 2015.

Despite the functional aspects of the station, the place has a long tradition of haunting stories, according to some local legends, that gave the nickname of “Ghost Station”.

The reality of the station is that Trains often break down there without some explanation. After the trains are taken to the reparation hangars, there is no evidence of any problem. Besides, drivers and users often report that doors get often stuck at the station.

Shanghai Metro Tunnel - Source Pexels (Picture by Rocha)

One of the most famous stories about the station says about a passenger that was hit and killed by a train at the station. Witnesses of the event stated that they saw something odd pushing this man off the platform. Some others that they saw some strange figure dragging him to the tracks. There are some other testimonies of people being pushed or pulled at the platforms and some others listening to a woman's laughter that can be heard echoing along the railway tracks at night.

Some people try to find the explanation in the un-auspicious location of the station, which sits near the Longhua Mortuary, with the women toilets of the station located right next to the hospital morgue.

In total, this station has been linked with at least nine mysterious deaths of users, apart from the constant breakdowns and the stuck opening doors.