Above: Lounging in the café at Factory, Shanghai’s new creative hub.

The brainchild of New York music producer Sean Dinsmore and digital-media agency Profero, Shanghai’s newest creative complex, Factory (Building 4, 29 Shajing Lu; factoryshanghai.com), is a platform for the local arts community to work, rest, and play—and for visitors to engage with Chinese creative types over coffee or cocktails. Set within the city’s historic abattoir-turned-art-hub, 1933, the industrial space has been transformed from a meat storage unit into a slick lounge and restaurant, alongside design workshops, an art gallery, and a diminutive recording studio. The night we visited, our meal of Californian comfort food with an Asian twist was accompanied by live music from a Chinese rock band, an interactive graffiti exhibition, and a jewelry-making class hosted by a local design student. Space for imagination, indeed. –AMY FABRIS-SHI

Originally appeared in the May 2009 print issue of DestinAsian magazine (“Gypsy Tales: Meating of the Minds”)