The blocks south and east of Tianzifang, in the Dapuqiao area, are less developed and give a more direct experience of the surviving French Concession residential fabric away from the boutique cluster. The lane houses here are occupied as housing rather than converted for commercial use; the street pattern of secondary lanes and small squares is characteristic of the concession-era planning.
Walking south along Luwan District's smaller streets reveals what the Tianzifang area looked like before the tourist development arrived and what similar areas in the French Concession still look like. The scale of the pre-war city — four- and five-storey buildings, narrow lanes, courtyard houses — is most legible in the quieter streets of this neighbourhood.