A guide to local favorites in the Old City

Parts of Shanghai’s Lao Cheng, by its Mandarin name — the original port city established in the 1290s — are demolished every passing month, but large swaths of the old neighborhoods remain. Little specialty shops hatching fresh eggs and handmade snacks cram the lanes. The oldest buildings here date back more than 400 years, but most are only a century or two old. While the section north of Fuxing Lu includes the tourist-overwhelmed Yu Garden, the City God Temple, Fangbang Lu and the Huxingting Teahouse, the area to the south is still authentically residential. Old City residents like to get an early start to their busy days of sitting in their doorways, watching what remains of their world.