Making way for a shopping mall

Shanghai Diaries blogger Dan Washburn and I took a stroll through the alley homes right behind Xintiandi. When the owner, Mr. Hua, asked me what I was doing taking fotos of his home (either that or he was cussing me out), I knew only enough Mandarin to reply: "I'm an American.'' To which he replied, "But you look Chinese." I told him that my father "is a little Chinese" and "I'm a little Chinese." He laughed, probably at my feeble attempt at Mandarin -- and invited us in.

From the alley, you walk into a patio-like room that serves as the foyer, kitchen and shower. The shower is a rigged plastic sprinkler with a hose you attach to the kitchen faucet. (You can see the blue shower and tubes behind Mrs. Liu). That leads to their main room, cramped and smaller than some walk-in closets I've seen in Silicon Valley. This room is their living room/bedroom/dining room. There were stairs to the side, which leads up into a very dark space that is the couple's bedroom.

Dan got this from them: Mr. Hua sells fish at the market during the day. From 5:30 pm to 7:30 am he works a second job at the DKD dance bar popular with expats, either as a bouncer or someone who keeps an "eye on the wine." He works day and night to earn $300 a month.

The government is tearing down his home next. But get this, they're supposedly paying him $250,000 USD for it. Neither Dan nor I could believe they'd compensate him so much, but he even wrote down the exact numbers for us. With the money, he's planning to buy a nearby apartment -- with a toilet -- for $150,000. If we're understanding him right, his hefty compensation is highly unusual since the government has been known to offer very, very little in return for land they seize.

Most of the 100 neighbors in the neighborhood have moved out. Mr. Hua is trying to stick it out as long as he can. The home has been in his family for the last 50 years.