I'm just so worried that where I live right now might also be gentrified. I'll be really sad when the coffin makers, the funeral parlour, the funeral accessories shop and the wholesale Chinese medicine people leave. Tsk.
Anyway, whenever you see a doorway like this open, it probably means that there's a business on the first floor. Most of the time, they're wholesaling boring shit like garden pots, but once in a while, you'll stumble upon people selling cute stuff like handmade brocade bags, although that's getting very rare nowadays.
If you do enter one of these buildings, remember that you shouldn't venture past the first floor because the rest of the floors are most likely private residences, and you shouldn't be a rude asshole. When I was living in my old flat, people would fucking come and invade the building all the time. I lived on the top floor and spent a lot of time on my roof until tourists started hanging out there, the nerve!
My German neighbour used to call the cops on them, and we would discuss ways in which to lay booby traps. Once, a group of French people even had a fucking picnic on my roof at night! They wouldn't leave so I had to call the cops and say that there were foreigners doing drugs on my roof. Of course, the police took them away.
This doorway actually smelled like pee so I didn't linger.
