The neighbourhood north of Suzhou Creek that served as the main settlement area for Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany in the late 1930s — around 20,000 arrived between 1933 and 1941, making Shanghai one of the only cities in the world that accepted Jewish refugees without requiring a visa. The Jewish Refugees Museum on Changyang Road, housed in the former Ohel Moshe Synagogue, tells this history in careful detail.
Hongkou also holds the 1933 Old Millfun — a remarkable 1933 abattoir designed by the British firm Balfours, with a concrete structure of bridges, walkways and circular ramps that now houses restaurants and boutique businesses. The neighbourhood's character today is working-class and increasingly creative, with good street food and a strong local residential community that has largely resisted the gentrification of the areas further south.