A glimpse inside a storied 120-year-old lockup

Located not far from the Huangpu River on the North Bund in Shanghai, Tilanqiao Prison, built in 1901, has so many stories and rumors that local residents never get tired of talking about it.

These tales are becoming trendy conversation pieces once again, as the prison, dubbed the "No 1 prison in the Far East", will be repurposed following the relocation of inmates.

Having served for more than a century, most of the prison buildings there are squat, and the cells have no windows. All the cells are located on one side of a building, with the only windows located on the other side. There are two corridors in the middle.

The corridor close to the cells was used to distribute food and for prisoners to exercise. The other corridor was used for patrols.

"All the locks on the cell gates were built in and shipped from the United Kingdom. There are three ways to lock each gate from outside," said Shi Jinxiu, a police officer at the administrative office of Tilanqiao Prison.

"When there was a need for prison officers to lock all the inmates in their cells whenever any emergency happened, he just needed to run through the corridor and turn all the handles on the locks horizontal. It was a faster way to lock all the gates," she said.

Three inmates stayed in a cell of 3 square meters. In each cell was a fixed bunk bed, a folding bed and a toilet.

"In order to better monitor the prisoners, they were required to sleep with their heads facing outward, near the cell gates. Surveillance cameras were later installed in the cells to further ensure their safety," said Shi.

At the former prison site, there is a special building, which is cross-shaped when viewed from above. A cross represents salvation in some cultures.

The six-story prison building with 150 prison cells was the last to be completed on the site and put into use in 1935. It was only used for foreign criminals before 1949.

Each floor of the building has two corridors. One is from east to west, and the other is from north to south. The two corridors converge in the middle to form a circular atrium. In order to prevent accidents, a solid wire mesh is installed between the atriums on each floor, and the stairwells were also fully enclosed with wire mesh.

"Due to the design of the building and its orientation, it's difficult to tell the direction of sunlight from inside. This made it hard for prisoners to escape," said Shi.

"In addition, there were two iron doors on each floor, one of which was a false door. This made it even more difficult to escape," she said.

In 1999, the Shanghai Prison Exhibition Hall was set up in this building where historical materials and architectural models of some prisons in Shanghai and across the country are exhibited.

Over its years of operation, junior middle school education was provided universally among the prisoners, with some receiving senior middle school and college education. They obtained diplomas if they passed unified city-level exams. Technical and vocational training was also organized for the prisoners, and those who passed tests were issued graded certificates, said the prison officer.