The outside wall has been painted white, making it stand out among the old residential brick houses downtown. A black iron gate separates the center from the bustle outside.

The gate opens and it is a brand new world. When people first enter the former warehouse, they cannot help but gasp in admiration at the interior of industrial chic, with white walls, black roof beams, a gray floor and steel pillars.

This is where a series of art exhibitions, modern drama performances and opera recitals have been held since the center opened last summer.

"You can hardly believe this center used to be a warehouse," said Deke Erh in his office on the second floor.

This 1.78-metre-tall man has a short beard and medium-length hair with slight curls. He looks like a man with common sense.

"I don't usually do things beyond my ability," he said. "Once I start to do something, I try my best to achieve perfection."

He said he opened the center for artists to display their work. "You know, the economy of the city develops so fast while the development of the arts lags behind," he said.

Born in the East China city in 1959, Deke Erh has been many things: freelance photographer, extensive traveler, antiques collector, publisher, bookshop owner and information-technology company owner.

He began to explore art after realizing how much the city's old buildings were to be prized.

A last look

Fifteen years ago, when the city was slumbering amid a slow pace of development, a sharp-eyed Deke Erh was quick and wise enough to realize the importance of the old European houses in Shanghai.

Some were being used as government offices, some as institutions, some as hotels for special guests and some as multiple-residency homes.

"Many of these buildings had suffered decades of neglect and they looked heavy with history," said Deke Erh. "They were weathered and a little lost in dust."

So he set out to take photographs of these historical buildings of a city in transition. In 1990, the Hong Kong-based Old China Hand Press published them in "A Last Look - Western Architecture in Old Shanghai," which he co-wrote with Tess Johnston.

Inspired by the book's success, Deke Erh and Johnston explored the city's architectural heritage further and then cast their eyes over Western architecture in China as a whole. They have published eight architecture books so far.

The books are full of Deke Erh's gorgeous photographs of old houses and villas, some accompanied by a plethora of old photographs and documents to liven up the English-language stories and captions by Johnston, former secretary at the United States consulate-general and for decades a Shanghai resident.

In recognition of their achievements in fostering greater awareness of historic architecture in China, the Hong Kong chapter of the American Institute of Architects awarded Deke Erh and Johnston chapter citations in November.

Collector of antiques

The proceeds from the architecture books enabled Deke Erh to travel extensively in Canada, the United States and Europe to take pictures there.

To his surprise, Deke Erh found that there are museums of arts and crafts in almost every town and city in Europe.

"I was greatly impressed by these simple and ordinary objects used by their forefathers," he said. "They present a vivid picture of people's lifestyles."

It was then that a seed was planted in Deke Erh's mind, and soon he was determined to fill the gap in China. He began collecting artifacts and furniture from the Ming and Qing dynasties (1368-1644 and 1644-1911) in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River.

In 1988, when he bought a 22-room house in rural Qingpu County, a suburb west of central Shanghai, he wanted to use it for respite from his busy life and work. He began to send his collected objects there and, in 1992, turned it into a folk art museum, home to cupboards, tables, chairs, woodworks and other vintage knick-knacks.

"You can see that people in these areas had many refined and beautiful things in their daily lives just 100 years ago," he said.

Home for art and artists

To provide a place for artists and art enthusiasts to gather, Deke Erh opened his Old China Hand Reading Room on Shaoxing Road, a quiet street with several publishing houses and a Kunqu Opera theatre.

It is an interesting place permeated by the fragrance of hot coffee, where the modern computer and the old typewriter coexist, old Chinese furniture lies side by side with a Western fireplace, and ardent readers leaf through the books on the shelves.

Deke Erh was one of the earliest artists to gather at Taikang Road, for a long time an obscure side street with small grocery shops, eateries and tiny barber's shops.

He signed an eight-year contract to rent an 800-square-metre factory at a low price, and converted it into a spacious art center for multiple purposes.

As well as a variety of art events, the current focus of the art center is printmaking.

And Deke Erh is aiming high. "You know, in the 1930s, under the encouragement and auspices of Lu Xun, Shanghai produced a galaxy of young printmaking artists," said he. "However, as time went by, the city saw no evident progress in printmaking for the past half-century."

Deke Erh is determined to change that. At the art center, there are now two printmaking classes. One is for training primary and secondary school teachers and the other is for advanced learners - that is, local artists who come to rediscover the value of the art form.

"You know, making prints is a good way to get people interested in art," he said. "It is also good for children to develop mechanical skills, and doing etchings is just as much fun as playing."

Artists are free to come to the art center and work for as long as they like. Deke Erh's art museum and house in the countryside provide a studio and respite for visiting artists while they exhibit their works at the Taikang Road art center.

New horizon

Since 1999, Deke Erh has spent nearly six months a year in western China with his field studio set up in Lan Zhou, the capital of Gansu Province.

"My 15 years work photographing old European buildings in China were over," he said. "I have set out on another 15-year-long project on western China."

Deke Erh has an ambitious plan to use his lens to cover folk art in Northwest China, ancient Muslim architecture in southern Xinjiang, the religious and secular life of Tibetan people, the route of Genghis Khan's expeditionary expansion in central and western Asia, and Mongolian tribes at Lake Balkan.

Some of these projects are being financed by foreign publishers and collaborators but most of the money is coming out of Deke Erh's own pocket.

This month, Deke Erh will hold his first photo exhibition on western China - about the Gobi Desert in Inner Mongolia.

"I am so stubborn in my pursuit of art," he said half-jokingly.

"In past decades, many people kept jumping from this to that. Yesterday they practiced violin or piano; today they are learning calligraphy; and tomorrow they will study English so that they can go abroad.

"I am sticking loyally to photography and other hobbies. Though the world is changing rapidly, I remain unchanged to my hobbies.

"I feel so lucky to be doing things I like, and I feel especially lucky to live in today's China -a fascinating country undergoing great changes.

"As a photographer, I come, I see and I record with my camera and leave a visual archive of a country in transition."

(China Daily March 29, 2002)