How a Shanghai art tour by motorbike reveals city’s galleries beyond M50
Galleries in Shanghai are spread out and can be tricky to find, which is why Shanghai Insiders offers art tours by motorbike that visit a host of small galleries in a single day. The best bit? You get to ride in the sidecar
“A lot of people who come to Shanghai think the art scene is M50,” says guide Arthur Humeau, referring to an old industrial district of the city that has been transformed into an arts hub. To prove that is not the case, the Frenchman kicks his Chang Jiang 750 motorcycle into life as I clamber into the sidecar, and we roar off on an art tour of the city.
The tour has been organised by Shanghai Insiders, a group which offers city guides by motorbike for one or two people. The tours are tailored to what people want to see, starting from 800 yuan (US$120) for a one-hour ride.
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“Art galleries are quite spread out and can be tricky to find in Shanghai – it is difficult to get from one gallery to another,” says Catherine Ferguson, general manager of Shanghai Insiders and creator of the tour that I am on.
The meeting point for my tour is the Andaz hotel in the fashionable Xintiandi dining and entertainment district, from where we head into the lanes of the city’s “Old Town”. Being in the sidecar, you are much closer to the road and feel part of the street scene. People turn and look, drawn by the rhythmic chatter of the bike’s flat twin engine. As we zip through the traffic, the ride is surprisingly comfortable, devoid of the jarring I expect from the potholed roads.
Our first stop is a gallery tucked away on the seventh floor of a 1930s-era building a few streets away from the Bund. The gallery, called Around Space, would be difficult to find without an introduction. Neither is it a permanent stop on the itinerary: according to Ferguson, galleries visited vary depending on what exhibitions are currently underway.
