Shanghai, China: Nanjing Rd at night

Brian — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 14:45:35 +0000

Late night shoppers hanging around Nanjing Rd way after all shops have closed.

The standard tourist to Shanghai makes a pilgrimage to the perennially packed Nanjing Road. The picture of thousands of shoppers compressed through the use of telephoto lens is all over brochures of Shanghai. I could copy those, and maybe I would in the future for my project, but I was more interested in what Nanjing Rd looked like late at night, when most of the shops have already closed.

In every major city there is always that one place where you will find more out-of-towners than locals, and this is where touts, conmen, and the general unlicensed street traders hang around. So naturally, I had my iPod on with sound isolating Shure headphones so I can ignore most of them coming up to me. I’m sure I will have to spend some time waiting so I packed a book with me so I can find a bench and read it until the crowd thins down.

In my small bag, 2 cameras. A Leica M6 fitted with a Summilux 50mm f1.4 ASPH, my favourite lens for night time shooting, and a second Leica M2 with Voigtlander Nokton 35mm f1.2 ASPH with Tom Abrahamsson’s Rapidwinder IXMOO. Both cameras are loaded with Fujifilm’s Neopan 1600. There are no meter on the Leica M2 so I was expecting quite a number of rejected shots.

And here are the results…

The standard shot of Nanjing Road, but this one close to 11pm. There are noticeably quite a number of people still wandering around, along with touts selling underwater goods.

This is a large tidbit shop. With the shutter closed, it is still possible to see the workers cleaning up and getting ready to return home.

This private proprietor is clearly a late night worker. He is the only person in the shop, perhaps indicating that the workers have already gone home long ago.

Now this booth is filled with customers. I did not figure out what it was selling, though my guess would be lottery tickets.

And just like everywhere else in Shanghai, all public places are places to lounge around. Even late at night on Nanjing Road, it is possible to see people just hanging about when all else have closed.

And this is the other guy, myself being the other, reading at a pedestrian mall late at night.

... And before long, the cleaning crew would be coming to give the place a scrubdown.

And more of the scrubcrew...

And soon it's time for everyone to pack up their stuff and say goodbye. This guy is shirtless as it was a hot night. Definitely a Shanghainese.

And some came to Nanjing Road prepared with their pyjamas.

Maybe they all plan to sleep over?

There are no shortage of public transportation to get back late at night. These 3 wheeled motorcycles are everywhere on the pedestrian street.

As are the most popular mode of transport apart from the metro...

Security van, not police, so this van has to be there to pick up the security guards after the night shift.

But night time belongs to the cleanup staff

Shanghai No. 1 Store, at the beginning of the pedestrian walkway.

The Meridien Hotel, on Nanjing Road

And before long, it is quite obvious that the crowds are starting to thin down dramatically closer to midnight.

And in some areas it is just traquil, something not found very often in Shanghai.

These maintenance crews were getting ready to replace billboard posters.

And the last image to end this series... Hope you enjoyed it.

*end*

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Shanghai, China: Nanjing Rd at night