Daniel Newman and Tina Tian run the newly-launched Newman tours. They take guests on a range of themed walks around Shanghai neighbourhoods. We joined them for a meander through the macabre parts of Jing’an. 

In a Buddhist restaurant on Wulumuqi Lu, everyone is eating, but the portion of food served in front of an empty seat remains untouched. The e gui, or hungry ghost, is cursed with a narrow esophagus that won’t let him make a dent in his meal until gui jie, the ghost festival, when he must eat enough to last the entire year. One of the guides, Tina, is from Sichuan and her grandparents still put out food for the e gui on gui jie.

As well as introducing the hungry ghost, the Jing’an ghost tour takes us to the haunts of a murdered dancing girl, a mad, lecherous Abbott, and Shanghai’s most municipally disobedient dragon, where Daniel, a Brit, introduces their horrible tales.

What terrible pasts brought you to your current job?

Daniel: Back in England I decided to try some Chinese Gung Fu, Shaolin and Bei Chuan, Northern and Southern Fists. While I was training I saw a documentary about Shaolin and was just amazed by the dedication that these guys showed for their art and decided I would go there. It was very lonely and it was very painful and the toilets were beyond any horror that you might experience during any ghost tour.

Tina: I’m studying tourism management.

Sounds emboldening. What makes you good spirit guides?

T: I love talking and I’m not afraid of standing in front of lots of people from all over with different cultures.

D: I did a lot of theatre at school and university, performing on stage, and I’m wonderfully loud. I have a fog horn voice. And I’m a clairvoyant and can communicate with the dead.

I knew that was coming. Where do the stories come from?

D: All over. I have a nice little library that I've slowly accumulated of history books on China, local history books about Shanghai in particular, studying at university, the internet, Chinese resources. Several of the ghost stories you won’t find anywhere else in English.

Are you guys worried that talking about ghosts makes them more likely to show up?

T: I’m kind of afraid of that. I believe so. On the ghost tour, every time Daniel or I tell a story I always pray inside my heart. In the temple, even if we’re not talking about ghosts, if we’re talking about buddhas, for me you have to at least tell them that we’re just doing this tour, we didn’t mean to make jokes about them.

Have you had any encounters with the supernatural?

T: At night when I go to bed I always put my slippers facing out, not facing the bed. Old people say that if they’re facing the bed then ghost spirits can step on your slippers and climb on the bed. Before I started doing this, one time during the university holidays I was dreaming but I felt like someone was on me; I could feel them pressing down on me. I was conscious, but my eyes were still closed – half sleeping, half awake. I tried to struggle, but I couldn’t move. It took minutes for me to finally – ugh – like this [push them off].

Yeesh. What about you, Daniel?

D: In Tibet, I went to see a sky burial where, when someone dies, they chop the body into small, bite-sized pieces so the birds in the area will come and carry those pieces to the heavens. When I was there I saw a skull. You’re not meant to take photos of human bodies – the Tibetans don’t like it. But I couldn’t resist. As soon as I did I felt not just one spirit but the spirits of many deceased people whispering and approaching, moving around me, ganging up on me. The beauty of horror and fear is you never know if it’s really happening or if it’s just in your mind. So I sort of stopped and said a little prayer – and I’m not religious at all – but I kind of said I’m really sorry, I shouldn’t have done that. As soon as I apologised in a genuine way it stopped.

So you deleted the photo?

D: No, I printed it.

Apart from horror, what other theme tours do you guys give?

D: A lot of the history that we introduce in the French Concession is about gangsters and crime and opium dealing and poisoning your opium dealing competitors, so we thought maybe we could make this into a theme for the tour. The Bund tour is going to launch in May, and I’m thinking about calling it ‘the sex and money tour’. Later on I want to add a Kung Fu tour, because that’s my original interest in China, and I still practice now.

Where’s the scariest place in Shanghai?

D: There’s a shopping mall that used to be an orphanage where lots of children died and weren’t very well looked after. To this day, when they close the shopping mall they still play soothing children’s music so that the sound of the ghosts crying doesn’t disturb the security guards. You can visit Taipingyang Baihuo, 932 Hengshan Lu, near Jiaojiabang Lu.

Tours last two hours, with the option of staying on for a meal. Adults/Students/Children: RMB 280/220/160 with a meal, RMB 150/120/90 without. Web: http://newmantours.com.

Tel: 138 1777 0229