On August 7, 2026, the “Old Shanghai Theme Week” opened at Shenyuan Garden (申园) in Shanghai Expo Culture Park, part of the garden’s “Summer Cool at Shenyuan” (申园·纳夏凉) series. Themed activities run through August 16, while the accompanying exhibition of vintage objects stays open until August 30. As the second chapter of the summer series — after an earlier week devoted to botanical aesthetics — the program layers Jiangnan garden scenery, old-Shanghai nostalgia and traditional heritage crafts, with a qipao show and a Song brocade bamboo-joint bag workshop on August 15 standing out as highlights. Shenyuan Garden also serves as a branch venue of the 13th Shanghai Lotus and Water Lily Exhibition; adult admission costs 30 yuan.
Republican-Era Corners and Vintage Tickets
In the Yulanting (玉兰庭) courtyard, the park has built a retro Republican-era street corner, complete with rickshaws and old-style mailboxes, recreating the look of old Shanghai lanes as a favorite spot for visitors to photograph. Throughout the event, the park hands out a limited daily quota of imitation Republican-era theater tickets — a collector’s keepsake in their own right that can also be used to offset purchases of tea drinks. At the Muxixuan (木樨香轩) hall, the “Nostalgia for Childhood” vintage-object exhibition, free to all visitors, gathers collectors’ old tickets, handwritten letters, dated award certificates, vintage newspapers and assorted household objects from past decades, stringing together the everyday texture of old Shanghai life.
Qipao Show: Moonlit Silhouettes Over the Lotus Pond
On the evening of August 15, Shenyuan Garden teams up with the White Rabbit brand for a qipao show, “Moonlit Silhouettes: Zheng Melodies of Jiangnan” (月下霓裳，筝韵江南), on the Mudantai (牡丹台) stage. Set against the garden’s real pavilions, bridges and waterside terraces, the show pairs the elegance of the qipao with live guzheng music, and spectators who arrive in qipao can fit right into the scene. A cultural-and-creative market runs alongside the performance, where visitors can try their hand at sachet-making and browse heritage crafts; the open-air show itself is free of charge.
The park also offers two heritage craft workshops. On the afternoon of August 9, the Yiyuetang (邀月堂) hall hosts a shadow-puppet workshop where participants paint their own puppet figures, watch classic shadow-puppet plays and learn proper manipulation techniques — a hands-on encounter with shadow puppetry, inscribed on the world intangible heritage list. On the afternoon of August 15, a Song brocade bamboo-joint bag course uses national-level heritage Song brocade (宋锦) fabric, explains traditional weaving techniques, and guides visitors through cutting and sewing their own heritage handbag.
“Yuyuan Garden on the west bank, Shenyuan Garden on the east” — this Jiangnan garden hidden in the city center sets its canvas of ancient paintings and lotus, with night excursions as its signature, and embeds Shanghai-style nostalgia and heritage crafts in classical garden scenery. Combining free exhibitions, live performances and hands-on workshops, it lets city residents cool off and revisit old Shanghai’s everyday stories in high summer, in an immersive meeting of traditional aesthetics and Shanghai-flavored culture.