Grasshoppers in cages prove intriguing for this young man.Photo: Chen Xia/GT

The evening sun is warming the old brick walls. After a day of work, residents are happy to return to their homes, tucked away in longtang, Shanghai's traditional laneways. A few pause by the grocery stall inside the laneway to buy cigarettes or some soy sauce. Some children are squatting in a circle, playing marbles and their laughter brightens the dusk.

This was the norm in Shanghai around the 1980s, before skyscrapers and flyovers crowded the city and there were no smartphones or tablets to divert people. In those days most Shanghai families lived in longtang.

Although the old longtang life has largely vanished the affection for it and a general sense of nostalgia seems to be growing and it can be experienced all over again in Yuyuan Garden where the Yuyuan Old Shanghai Night Market has opened and will run until August 30. The market tries to recreate the 1980s longtang lifestyle with buildings, old stores, statues and exhibits.

Thousands of locals have already visited the market to immerse themselves cheerfully in their childhood days or show their children how they used to live. For outsiders it's a unique opportunity to experience Shanghai's culture and history.

Visitors check out goods on display in an old-style store.Photo: Huang Lanlan/GT

Serve the people

Walking through the Yuyuan market longtang, youngsters who were born after the 1990s and know little about how life was led in those days laugh and wonder at the slogans that adorn the walls here.

Daubed on the brickwork through this mock longtang are phrases like "Serve the people" and "Clean to eliminate the 'four pests'" - the "Four Pests Campaign" was introduced during the Great Leap Forward (1958-61), when people all over the country were encouraged to wipe out rats, sparrows, flies and mosquitoes which were thought then to be harmful to crops.

In those days "four pests" slogans were often painted on walls to inspire people to join the campaign. They seem a bewildering anachronism for today's young people.

In this longtang visitors can also check out the grocery store that sells everyday necessities from a bygone era. This is where people bought vacuum flasks, striped bath towels and enamel tea mugs. In the 1970s and 80s, every Shanghai family had striped bath towels and enamel mugs - two of the most fashionable household items in those days.

Next to the grocery store there's a clock and watch store - one of the few "luxury stores" of 40 years ago. A watch was regarded as one of the "four big items" in the 1960s and 70s (the other three were bicycles, transistor radios and sewing machines). Owning these four expensive items showed that you were one of the wealthier citizens.

Different dowries

Today in China, a "dowry" usually means an apartment, a car or lots of money. In the old days a woman's dowry was often just a sewing machine.

At the Yuyuan market there's a small exhibition room showing some of the wedding gifts and bric-a-brac that would have been common 30 or so years ago. This space has been decorated as if it was a traditional wedding room with red bowls, red chopsticks, a red thermos and red quilts neatly laid out. The bride's "dowry" - a new sewing machine - sits proudly at the foot of the wooden double bed.

As well as sewing machines, any of the "four big items" along with items of furniture like beds and tables, were popular as dowries in the 1970s and early 1980s. In the 1990s dowries could be motorcycles or household appliances like television sets or air conditioners. Later, desktop computers were acceptable.

Walking through the longtang visitors appreciate looking at the life-sized tableaus scattered through the streets. One of these shows two children putting a watermelon into a well. On Monday when the Global Times visited the market some elderly visitors stood around reminiscing cheerfully.

"We did this when we were young," a visitor surnamed Li told the Global Times. "In the old days there were no refrigerators. So in hot summers we put a watermelon into a net and then threw this into the well. Hours later we pulled out an icy cold melon!"

Older visitors also enjoyed looking at the tableau of two men on stools playing junqi, a traditional Chinese chess game where the pieces represent soldiers.

A vendor arranges her stock.Photo: Huang Lanlan/GT

Sentimental snacks

Near the longtang area there is a large bower decorated with leaves, ornamental fruit and bird cages. Under the bower are a dozen wooden tables with bamboo chairs. Here visitors can enjoy drinks and nostalgic local snacks like green bean cakes and fried broad beans, which cost just 5 yuan ($0.78) per dish.

In the front of the bower on a small stage in the afternoons and evenings professional performers demonstrate Pingtan (a traditional form of story-telling in the Suzhou dialect), Huju (Shanghai dialect) Opera, Peking Opera and Yueju Opera (which originated in Zhejiang Province). Performers also present small concerts with Chinese and Western instruments, sing folk songs and perform conjuring tricks.

Visiting the Yuyuan market is like visiting a time machine that takes people back to a mostly vanished Shanghai, a time when people would sit on bamboo chairs, eating snacks and drinking tea and watching musicians, singers and magicians perform.

Open: 8:30 am to 8 pm (performances: 3:15 pm to 8 pm)

Date: till August 30

Address: 269 Fangbang Road Middle 方浜中路269号

Admission: free

Visit http://www.yuyuantm.com.cn/yuyuan/En/Index/ for details.