A shikumen lane house in Xintiandi marks the site where the First National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party was held on July 23, 1921 — the founding meeting of the party that would govern China from 1949 onward. The original house is preserved and converted into a museum documenting the Congress and its thirteen participants, including the young Mao Zedong.
The museum is free to visit and well-maintained by Chinese standards for a site of this political significance. The building has been carefully restored and the ground-floor meeting room where the Congress was held is presented as it appeared in 1921. The site's location in the middle of what is now Shanghai's most fashionable dining district creates an unintended commentary on the party's subsequent 100 years. Xintiandi North Block.