About
Why CitiGrow
Most travel guides answer one question:
Where should I go?
We ask something different:
Why does this place matter?
That's why CitiGrow exists.
CitiGrow is an independent cultural archive documenting Shanghai through long-term walking, field observation and place-based storytelling.
Cities aren't downloaded.
They're walked, observed and understood.
These are the details that slowly reveal how a place became what it is.
- One doorway.
- One bridge.
- One forgotten garden.
- One conversation.
- One return at a time.
A Living Archive
For more than three years, we've walked Shanghai one neighbourhood at a time — more than 500 hours on foot, and counting.
Most routes are walked several times before they're published.
We compare old maps with today's streets. We read historical records. We speak with architects, historians and lifelong local residents — the kind of people who remember who really owned a house, or quietly correct a date that no record got right.
Our work begins on the ground. Only then do we turn to books, maps and archives.
Every route grows from careful observation until architecture, history and everyday life connect into something no single guidebook — or single researcher — could produce alone.
One Archive. Three Ways to Read It.
Routes
Carefully edited journeys that connect places into one continuous story.
Field Guides
Compact companions designed to help you notice more while you're walking.
Research Notes
Long-form essays exploring the history, questions and debates behind each route.
Together, they form a growing archive — not a collection of travel products.
Who's Behind It
CitiGrow brings together architects, urban designers, researchers, editors and lifelong local residents.
Professional observation is paired with local knowledge. Long-term field research is paired with lived experience.
Together, we call ourselves Story Walkers — some of us research and write, others lead the private walks that carry the same name.
Because everything we publish begins the same way: by walking.
Our Promise
We won't try to show you everything. Only what is worth noticing.
Because cities are never understood all at once. They're understood by returning.
The archive is still growing.