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Danielle Popov

Wong Kar-wai’s first television series, Blossoms Shanghai, is his love letter to the city of his birth.
The period romance drama, adapted from the novel Blossoms by Jin Yucheng, is set against Shanghai’s dramatic economic rise during the 1990s and centres on Ah Bao, a young stock trader whose own meteoric rise in the business world mirrors that of the city around him.
Gripping cinematography typical of Hong Kong-based Wong – who turned 66 on July 17 – is evident throughout, with Shanghai exhibiting a symmetrical perfection reminiscent of its art deco era.
Such visual enticement, combined with the popularity of the series, has seen a 75 per surge in demand for tours to filming locations, reports Chinese travel giant Trip.com.

Here are five locations featured in the series that show off the beauty and energy of the city while capturing the zeitgeist of the era.
1. The Cathay Hotel
In the series, the Cathay Hotel stands handsome and distinguished on the Shanghai Bund, built in 1929 by Victor Sassoon, a member of a prominent and wealthy Iraqi-Jewish family from England.
Distinguished by its copper dome and the elegant, sloping symmetry of its art deco design, the hotel (now the Fairmont Peace Hotel Shanghai) saw guests including Charlie Chaplin, Ernest Hemingway and Edgar Snow. Steven Spielberg filmed Empire of the Sun in the hotel, featuring a 13-year-old Christian Bale.
What was most interesting about the Cathay Hotel (and remain a feature of the Fairmont Peace Hotel) were the international suites – with names including the French, German and Japanese suites – featuring designs from the countries they represented.
Ah Bao was seen living in the opulence of the English suite, which was even renamed the “Blossoms suite” after the series and with a room rate 30 per cent higher than the hotel’s other international suites.
2. Huanghe Road

Awash with neon signs, this 700-metre-long road was famous in the 1990s for its street markets bustling with people and selling a huge variety of food.
It has lost its lustre in the following decades, with market stalls replaced by restaurants offering modern, international fare.
With the rise of the show, internet users have flooded Chinese social media platforms with their own photos from the road from the early 90s, both igniting a flame of nostalgia for 1990s Shanghai and confirming the faithfulness of Wong’s loving depiction.
3. Tai Sheng Yuan Restaurant
Tai Sheng Yuan Restaurant was the inspiration for the fictitious Zhi Zhen Yuan restaurant featured in Blossoms Shanghai.

On Huanghe Road, the restaurant is famed for its benbangcai, or local Shanghai cuisine.
With the series’ success, the restaurant launched Blossoms Shanghai-themed set meals for 1,680 yuan (US$230) for 10 people.
4. Nanjing Road
“On Nanjing Road, even a bag of used melon seeds can be sold for money!” exclaims a character in the show.
The first commercial street in Shanghai, Nanjing Road is deeply ingrained in the city’s visual identity – much like Queen’s Road Central is in Hong Kong. It was on Nanjing road that Albert Einstein gave a speech on the theory of relativity and Charlie Chaplin would have his silk shirts tailor-made.

It is here that Ah Bao achieves stock market success and makes his rise to millionaire, going from Ah Bao to Boss Bao.
Wong’s version swells with entrepreneurial zest, conveying the wonder and the wealth of what is now one of the busiest streets in Shanghai.
5. Jardine Matheson Building
In one part of Blossom Shanghai, Ah Bao runs from the Cathay Hotel to the Foreign Trade Building, which stands at No. 27 on the Bund.
A handsome structure completed in 1922 in the British Renaissance style, the building was originally the headquarters of Jardine Matheson, a multinational conglomerate with roots in the opium trade that was one of the first foreign businesses to open on the Bund.

Jardine Matheson still owns the building but moved out long ago. Since World War II, the building has housed the British consulate and the Shanghai Foreign Trade Administration, among others.
It is now known as The House of Roosevelt and contains the largest Rolex flagship store in the world, which opened in 2009.


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Chinese culture

5 locations from Wong Kar-wai’s Blossoms Shanghai that are now tourist hotspots

Tai Sheng Yuan Restaurant in Shanghai, China. Photo: Xinhua

Tai Sheng Yuan Restaurant in Shanghai was the inspiration for the fictitious Zhi Zhen Yuan restaurant featured in Blossoms Shanghai, directed by Hong Kong-based filmmaker Wong Kar-wai and filmed on location in the Chinese city. Photo: Xinhua

A person takes a photo of The Fairmont Peace Hotel in Shanghai – formerly the Cathay Hotel featured in Blossoms Shanghai – together with a phone image of Hu Ge, who plays Ah Bao in the series. Photo: AFP

Huanghe Road in 2024. Photo: Xinhua

The exterior of the Zhi Zhen Yuan restaurant in Blossoms Shanghai. Photo: Xinhua

Nanjing Road on May 1, 2024. Photo: Bloomberg

The Jardine Matheson Building on the Bund. Photo: Shutterstock Images

9 reasons Hong Kong films are loved globally, beyond stars like Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan

Bruce Lee in a still from Enter the Dragon. Photo: Golden Harvest

Jackie Chan (left) and Sammo Hung in a still from Project A (1983). Martial arts stars like Chan, Hung and Bruce Lee helped boost the popularity of Hong Kong films abroad, but many other factors also contributed to their success. Photo: Golden Harvest

(From left) German Cheung, Terrance Lau and Tony Wu in a still from Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In, by far the biggest Hong Kong blockbuster of 2024. Photo: Media Asia Films

Roy Cheung in a still from The Mission, the 1999 film directed by Johnnie To. Photo: Milkyway Image

Bruce Lee in a still from Fist of Fury (1972). Photo: Hong Kong Film Archive

Lo Lieh in a still from the 1972 film Five Fingers of Death, aka King Boxer. Photo: Shaw Brothers Studio

Bruce Lee (right) in a still from Enter the Dragon (1973). Photo: Golden Harvest

Brigitte Lin in a still from Chungking Express (1994). Photo: Jet Tone Production

Andy Lau (left) and Tony Leung in a still from Infernal Affairs (2002). Photo: Media Asia Distribution

Gordon Liu and Lily Li in a still from Executioners from Shaolin (1977). Photo: Shaw Brothers

Cannes Film Festival history for Hong Kong cinema as Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In and She’s Got No Name premiere

Andy Lau and Sammi Cheng star in Johnnie To’s 2013 film Blind Detective. Photo: Handout

As two Hong Kong films premiere at Cannes this year, we look back at Hong Kong cinema’s history at the festival. Above (from left): Zhang Ziyi, Tony Leung, Carina Lau and Takuya Kimura during a photocall for Wong Kar-wai’s 2046 at the 57th Cannes Film Festival, in 2004. Photo: Reuters

Hong Kong filmmaker Tang Yi won the Short Film Palme d’Or for All the Crows in the World, at the Cannes Film Festival on July 17, 2021. Photo: Reuters

(From left) Cannes jury president Robert De Niro with jury members Nansun Shi, Mahamat Saleh Haroun and Johnnie To at the 64th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France, on May 11, 2011. Photo: Xinhua

(From left) Tony Leung, Maggie Cheung and Wong Kar-wai at the photocall for In the Mood for Love, on May 20, 2000 in Cannes. Photo: AFP 

(From left) Tony Leung, Wong Kar-wai and Chang Chen at the Cannes Film Festival, France, on May 17, 1997. Photo: AP 

Tony Leung, who won the best actor award at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival, was surrounded by the media at Hong Kong International Airport after he returned from France. Photo: K.Y. Cheng

(From left) Actor Leslie Cheung, producer Hsu Feng and director Chen Kaige won the Palme D’Or for Farewell My Concubine at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival. Photo: SCMP

(From left) director Johnnie To, French actor and singer Johnny Hallyday, and actor Anthony Wong arrive for the screening of Vengeance, at the 62nd Cannes Film Festival on May 17, 2009. Photo: AFP 

Maggie Cheung (left) holds her best actress award next to French actor Vincent Cassel for her role in Clean during the awards ceremony at the 57th Cannes Film Festival, on May 22, 2004. Photo: Reuters

Wong Kar-wai’s Blossoms Shanghai TV show: what to expect, how true it stays to the novel it’s based on – and how fans are reacting

A still from “Blossoms Shanghai”. Photo: Jet Tone Films.

A still from period drama “Blossoms Shanghai”, Hong Kong director Wong Kar-wai’s long-awaited first television series. Photo: Jet Tone Films

A still from “Blossoms Shanghai”. Photo: Jet Tone Films

The series is adapted from the 2012 novel “Blossoms Shanghai” by Jin Yucheng (above).

Hu Ge in a still from “Blossoms Shanghai”. Photo: Jet Tone Films

Hu Ge as Abao in a still from “Blossoms Shanghai”. Photo: Jet Tone Films

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To mark the Hong Kong-based filmmaker’s birthday, the Post looks at places featured in the hit TV series that have seen a surge in interest


To mark the birthday of Hong Kong-based filmmaker Wong Kar-wai, the Post looks at five locations featured in his hit TV series Blossoms Shanghai that have seen a surge in tourist interest.


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