This is the second in a two-part series describing Sandy’s recent trip to China. You can read the first part here.

Despite being home to 20 million people, Shanghai  seemed almost empty during my stay there. Apparently, it is always very quiet this time of year, as many of the foreigners leave town for the holidays and relatively few travelers make officially religion-lite China a Christmas destination.

I say “officially” because there are five “recognized” religions in China: Buddhism, Daoism, Protestant Christianity, a special Chinese (not Roman) Catholicism and Islam. That said, there are four synagogues in Shanghai that the government allows to function without proper permits: two Chabad Houses; one in a residential building on the western side of the city; and another, Ohel Rachel, located in a government compound and used only on major holidays (although the government did allow it to remain open during the recently concluded Shanghai World Expo). Read More »

This description of the history of Jewish life in Shanghai is part of series describing Sandy’s recent travels to China. You can read part one here and part two here. As always, we welcome your thoughts and comments!

The city of Shanghai was a small, insignificant place until the mid-1800′s when the Chinese lost the Opium War in 1842 and, as part of the Nanjing Treaty with Britain, agreed to let the British establish five ports for international trade, one of which was Shanghai.

As it turns out, what was good for the British was good for the Jews. Among the first of those to take advantage of what was known as the British Concession was a Baghdadi Jewish family headed by David Sassoon. The Sassoons went from Baghdad to India, then to Hong Kong (where David served on the founding provisional committee of what is today one of the largest banks in the world, the Hong Kong Shanghai Banking Company or HSBC). Read More »

This is the first in a two-part series describing Sandy’s recent trip to China. You can read the second part here.

As much time as I spend in various cities and countries around the world, most of my trips are usually one or two dimensional. I am there for work or for vacation, for a specific purpose or for none at all. I stay in one hotel and I share my time with the same people.

In the case of my recent trip to China, however, just the opposite was true. It had been more than 30 years since I last visited the Middle Kingdom as part of the round-the-world journey I enjoyed after taking the bar exam in 1981. This time, I was here to work and to tour, to attend two very focused seminars and to learn about the culture in general.

Needless to say, much had changed since I last came to China’s shores—and some things seemed not to have changed at all. I spent time in two cities: Shanghai, a massive place of 20 million people, once considered the Paris of the Orient and now the New York of Asia. I also visited the ancient city of Xi’an, home to more than 8 million people but not yet to the many technological and economic advances so evident in Shanghai. Read More »