The revival has been described by locals as akin to that of New York's meatpacking district: gritty, winding back lanes and low-rise heritage buildings are newly buzzing with trendy establishments.
Each of the old lane houses had been awarded heritage status by the city, a program that Shanghai hopes will help preserve the traditional homes.
We walk up through the lanes with their gentler Ottoman heritage, and leave the truck to rest awhile.
The plaza -- you might call it The Plaza of toll booths -- will be a two-story monument of masonry and glass with a lighthouse-inspired spire, symbolic of New Jersey's coastal heritage, rising between the north and south lanes.
"It's fun for me, not just walking down memory lane, but owning a piece of my heritage in a weird sort of way".
On these historic brickwork lanes, the building facades represent the beauty and heritage of the Golden Age of the Netherlands in the 17th century.
The owners of Wanker's Country Store – "Where the good times come easy!" – in Oregon are fully aware that their name is more usually shouted by Transit drivers getting cut up in the outside lane of the M4, but they're proud of their long heritage.
No private company had ever been allowed to lay cable under the city's cobbled lanes and around the renowned medieval buildings that have secured Bruges's place on the Unesco world heritage list.
The project also involved constructing overtaking lanes between Clackline and Bakers Hill, upgrading intersections in Clackline, and constructing a pedestrian underpass for a heritage trail.
But a 15-minute walk from the hotel takes us into the town's medieval centre (pictured), which is a UNESCO world-heritage site full of narrow lanes, red lanterns and roofs curling up at the corners with wooden tendrils reaching into the sky.
It is heritage, heritage, heritage".
