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Breathing differently: a homecoming in Shanghai Taojiang Road
Frans Vandenbosch 方腾波 28/09/2026
What a joy !
I arrived in China once again, and something in me settled the moment I stepped off the plane: a quiet, physical relief that, after all these years of returning, I have stopped trying to explain.
We were only in Shanghai in April. Five months, and already the pull brought us back. People sometimes ask why we come so often, as though once or twice a year should be enough. It isn’t, and I don’t think it ever will be. Here, I walk at night without calculating risk. I speak my mind at dinner tables without first scanning the room. I watch neighbours and a local official argue in the street and go back to their tea afterwards, unruffled. These are small things. They are also, I’ve come to believe, the actual texture of freedom, not the word itself, but the absence of a flinch before you speak, the absence of a glance over your shoulder before you disagree.
I say this knowing full well how it sounds to ears trained to expect the opposite. I say it anyway, because I’ve lived both sides of the comparison and I no longer feel obliged to soften what I’ve seen with my own eyes.
In Europe, that same ease has been thinning for years, not all at once, but steadily, the way a coastline erodes: a phrase you learn to avoid, a joke you no longer risk, a message you think twice about sending. Friends in Europe expose a caution that has crept into ordinary conversations, a sense that certain opinions now carry a cost even when no law has technically been broken. I don’t say this to score a point. I say it because the contrast, lived rather than argued, is the most honest thing I can report back.
So yes, I am glad, deeply and unfashionably glad, to be back in a place where I breathe differently. Not because it is perfect. No country is. But because here in China, for reasons I keep trying and failing to fully explain, I feel more free.
What a joy to be home again, if only for a while.
Straight over Russia
Air China, as well as Hainan Airways and Juneyao Airlines are all taking the short, straight route from BRU to China, closely following the great circle. No wonder they can offer tickets at half the price of European carriers.
Shanghai heritage
This time, we’ve booked the ground floor (called the first floor in China) of a homestay in a Shanghainese heritage building, built in 1920 on Taojiang Road in the former French Concession.
Abbey Road
What a delight it was to see Rebecca again, the heart and soul of Abbey Road! We swapped stories from twenty years ago, laughing over old memories as if no time had passed. This year, Abbey Road celebrates two decades on Taojiang Road, and the best part is that we are now neighbours, just a few steps down the same street.
Abbey Road is more than a pub. For two decades it has been a beloved second living room for Chinese locals and Europeans in Shanghai alike. Over pints and plates of comfort food, friendships between China and Europe are quietly born, and warmly kept alive.
The week has its own rhythm here. On Wednesday evenings, regulars and fresh faces crowd around tables for board game night, laughing and plotting their next move. Thursday brings quiz night, with teams trading friendly banter and fierce, cheerful rivalry over every answer. Then come the weekends, when Abbey Road truly sings: on Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings, live bands take the stage and the whole room fills with music, voices and life.
La Crêperie
La Crêperie, at No. 1 Taojiang Road near Dongping Road, is another landmark restaurant. There we savoured La Normandie and Le Bar à Bar: the first, vanilla ice cream with stewed apple and a flambé with Calvados; the second, coffee ice cream, chocolate, cooked banana, raisins and rum. Between them, the table became a little theatre of sweetness. The memory lingers.
After twenty years, Taojiang Road still feels less like a destination than a place where the heart can finally exhale. And if Europe’s autumn grows colder, Shanghai’s honeyed air remains a quiet verdict: freedom is not a slogan but the ease with which one speaks, disagrees, and returns.
