Meet Lao Yan
Shanghai, seen through the eyes of someone who knows how cities work.
Lao Yan was born and raised in Shanghai. He is an urban designer with a deep interest in the city's architectural heritage — but Shanghai is more than his profession. It is his home.
He still walks streets that hold his childhood memories, witnessing how neighbourhoods change, how buildings find new purposes, and how familiar places sometimes disappear altogether.
His perspective brings together a local's attachment, the trained eye of a designer, and years of research into the stories written into Shanghai's streets.
He studied Architecture at Tongji University and earned a Master's in Landscape Architecture from the University of Sheffield. A Chartered Member of the UK's Landscape Institute, he has worked on more than 200 planning and design projects across China and Europe, including public spaces, urban regeneration and historic environments.
But professional experience is only part of his story.
Through Walking Shanghai: 100 Places, an independent exploration and storytelling project, Lao Yan has spent years revisiting neighbourhoods, documenting buildings, tracing historical connections and uncovering details easily overlooked — including the traces of places that no longer exist.
His work has grown into city walks, public lectures, educational programmes and documentary storytelling. The documentary Walking with Lao Yan received a Bronze Award at the 2024 Busan International Art Festival.
A doorway can reveal how a neighbourhood once lived. A street name can open a forgotten chapter. A familiar building can lead into conversations about architecture, migration, culture and the changing life of Shanghai.
He sees the city through both memory and professional understanding — not only what Shanghai once was, but how it continues to evolve.
His walks are conversations, not rehearsed scripts. In English or Chinese, he shapes each experience around the places and questions that interest you.
CitiGrow preserves the research and stories. Lao Yan brings them to life on the streets.