A ride to Datuan Town (大团镇) today, deep in Shanghai’s Pudong district. I saw a post on Xiaohongshu about it, but mostly the map made me curious, as a city block squared into tiny rivers hints at an old town. That’s not some professional knowledge I possess, but a fair guess. (But yes, Datuan was founded in 1568.)

The town is deep into the outskirts of Pudong, but far from dead. On the scale of ‘how-remote-is-it?’, well: it’s not big enough for a KFC, but there is a Luckin Coffee. (Not great, not terrible.) There are some supermarkets and modern restaurants. In the rickety houses in old streets, only old people live. Some of these houses belonged to important people (who I don’t know).

When I started the ride back home, I saw a modern protestant church (耶稣堂). The gate was closed but I asked if I could come in and have a look — but I should have known protestant churches are, well, not decorated. The lady told me proudly about the recent renovation about the church, so I asked her if any young people came to visit this church — but she said no. The last foreigner that dropped by was two years ago. She asked if it was me. Now it was my time to say no.