China: Shanghai's Da Shijie or Great World entertainment centre in the 1930s

Shanghai’s best-known and largest entertainment complex, Dashijie – the ‘Great World’ – was a six storey building at the junction of today’s Yan’an Donglu and Xijang Nanlu.

According to a contemporary account, the first floor was dedicated to gambling and sing-song girls in dresses slit to the thigh, the second to restaurants and actors, the third to ‘a bevy of girls in high-collared gowns slit to reveal their hips’, the fourth to more gambling tables and massage services, while the fifth ‘featured girls ‘whose dresses were slit to the armpits’, peep shows and… a Chinese temple!

Copyright:

Supplier: CPA Media Co. Ltd.

Credit:

Pictures From History

Theme:

OLD SHANGHAI