Hengshan–Fenyang–Baoqing: consulates and the conservatory

Starting point. Hengshan Road extends the old French Concession west — laid out in 1922 as Avenue Pétain. This stretch keeps the most intact Republican-era plane-tree avenue. From here cut east along Taojiang to reach Fenyang Road, and walk it south to north in one line.

The first villa on the southern stretch of Fenyang Road. Built 1919, French classical. Once the residence of Republican navy minister Bai Chongxi; later used by Xuhui District for receptions. Now a Western restaurant — the garden is open, walk through.

Keep north. The 1905 official residence of the French Concession's Council director — French Renaissance style. Tickets ¥25; the exhibits are decent, but the building itself is the draw: marble stairs, stained-glass atrium. Step out and the plane trees overhead form a green vault in summer.

The north end of Fenyang Road — and the route's climax. Founded in 1927 by Cai Yuanpei and Xiao Youmei, China's earliest higher-education music school. The campus is open; after 4 p.m. on weekdays practice music drifts from every building — this is what the route's tagline (music from old villa windows) refers to.

From the conservatory, walk roughly 400 m west along Fuxing Middle Road to Baoqing Road, which runs parallel to Fenyang. No. 3 was the 1925 estate of dye magnate Zhou Zongliang — five buildings around a garden. Restoration took five years; it reopened in 2017 as the Symphony Music Museum. The exhibitions are average; the garden is Xuhui's loveliest.