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The Official Midnight in Peking Walking Tour

Fox Tower Midnight in Peking Dongbianmen
The Fox Tower where Pamela’s body was found

A brutal murder, a botched investigation, and a time Beijing would rather forget. Intrigued? So were we (along with the rest of the world) when author Paul French released Midnight in Peking.

Five years on, and an unwavering interest in the book prompted us to collaborate with publishers Penguin on a walking tour to bring the story back to life in modern-day Beijing. Little did we know that in researching the tour, Bespoke’s long term collaborator Lars Ulrik Thom would uncover a raft of never-before-seen documents relating to the case.

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Handmade in Shanghai

With gift giving season bearing down upon us once more, we’ve turned to some of the city’s traditions for inspiration. In an online retail obsessed world, finding gifts that are genuinely and unmistakably ‘Shanghai’ is harder than ever. Bespoke opens its little black book to share a few of our favorite traders who are keeping it distinctively and wonderfully local.

Wok
A handmade wok, hammer marks and all.

The Old School Wok

It doesn’t get more handmade than this. The wok-making Cen brothers and their tiny workshop in Zhabei District are well-known in foodie circles and, despite Shanghai’s constant development, they’ve barely changed. The brothers still spend most of the day sitting outside, bashing away – you’ll need to interrupt them to make a purchase. They’re said to be the only people plying this craft in the entire city and whilst we can’t verify that, we do know that the finished product, hammer marks and all, is a thing of great beauty. Prices start at 120 RMB per wok.

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Super Sneak Peak: Ahn Luh Zhujiajiao

Ahn Luh
This 600 year old building was picked up and moved here. Because they can. 

Honestly, we’re not frequent visitors over in Zhujiajiao, one of Shanghai’s closest watertowns – the crazy tourist numbers and indentikit stores mean we’ve been heading further afield. But we’ve just been introduced to something that might help to change our minds.

Ahn Luh Zhujiajiao
An ‘ambassador for ancient Chinese culture’. Stick a roof like this on it and you’re golden.

After much delay, the new Ahn Luh resort is finally ready to swing open its hefty doors in the first week of January 2016. Counting Aman guru Adrian Zecha among its founders, Ahn Luh is aiming to be the first Chinese company to make a name for itself in the world of super luxury resorts. Will they succeed? The gorgeous main building, a 600 year old Huizhou-style structure that’s been painstakingly moved here from Anhui Province, and the promise of a year-round outdoor pool (the first in Shanghai?) have certainly piqued our interest. We’ll be heading over when it’s fully open to find out more.

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Rendering Change at The Long Museum

Steel Foundryv
Rendering Change at The Long Museum. Picture credit: The Long Museum

We’ve been fans of the Long Museum West Bund from the get-go, its vast halls make for a truly remarkable space and the variety of exhibitions we’ve enjoyed there have been second to none – and that’s before we even get into the eccentric antics of the museum’s owner.

Rendering Change at The Long Museum. Picture credit: The Long Museum
Rendering Change at The Long Museum. Picture credit: The Long Museum

The latest exhibit to open is one of our favorites yet. If you’ve found Chinese ink painting inaccessible in the past, Rendering Change is a rare and wonderful chance to see some paintings from a recent era, all drawn from the private M K Lau collection, and the vast majority were created between 1949 and 1979 as a ‘new China’ emerged. As such, the paintings contain traditional landscapes combined with new themes such as communes, industrial development and political leaders.

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