While many have dedicated much time and energy to showcasing the buildings and historical sites of the former International Settlement and French Concession in Shanghai, the purpose of this book is to highlight the forgotten remnants of infrastructure – still dotting the streets – originally installed by the foreign powers that once called Shanghai home.

Since the ending of foreigner controlled concessions in mainland China in the1940s and the reversal of colonialism, Shanghai's – despite the passage of time, governments, world and civil war, national reclusiveness and "opening up", rapid development and modernization – former infrastructure, build and maintained by the city's pervious foreign landlords, can still be found throughout the old boundaries of the concessions.

In many cases these pieces of infrastructure still furnish the English language markings inscribed by Shanghai's former administrators and they serve as reminders that amidst Shanghai's new sheen of steal and modern skyscrapers that the city has an international, rich and colorful history.