Zhabei
A Century on the North Bank of Suzhou Creek
Zhou Ge (舟哥) · Nickzhuo
In Shanghai they say: "Zhabei is the north gate of the city."
That gate stood open for more than a hundred years. It watched steam launches tow rice barges in from Suzhou Creek; it watched the lead type of the Commercial Press fill the whole length of Baoshan Road; it watched soldiers of the 19th Route Army set up machine guns at the mouth of a lane off Qiujiang Road; it watched the Eight Hundred Heroes write their last letters home from the windows of Sihang Warehouse; and it watched the mud-and-mat shacks of Fangua Lane turn, crop after crop, into five-storey workers' villages.
On 4 November 2015 the gate closed — not slammed, but closed. Zhabei District was merged into Jing'an District, and the two characters "Zhabei" entered history for good.
The gate is gone; the roads remain. This book sets out to explain, one thing at a time, what lay behind that gate.
What this book contains
| Part | Contents | The question it answers |
|---|---|---|
| Part One | A Chronicle of Zhabei | Where did Zhabei come from, and how did it come to an end? |
| Part Two | A Guide to Zhabei's Sub-districts | Eight sub-districts and one town — what is each of them? |
| Part Three | Notable Sites in Zhabei | What can you still see and touch in Zhabei today? |
| Part Four | Figures from Zhabei's History | Who left a name on this ground? |
| Appendices | Street-name codes / chronology / place-name concordance / works cited | Where do you start if you want to dig further? |
A note on this edition
- This is the English edition. The Chinese original is the source text; where the two differ, the Chinese prevails.
- The book is text-first: no illustrations. Every factual statement is sourced wherever possible; see Appendix 4.
- On administrative geography: events before 2015 are attributed to "Zhabei District"; the present-day area is called "Jing'an District (former Zhabei)".
- Read it online: https://zhabei.org — on phone or desktop, nothing to install.
- Built with HonKit; sources on GitHub.
- Other languages: use the language bar at the top of the page — 简体中文 · 繁體中文 · English · 日本語 · 한국어 · Français · Deutsch.
— Zhou Ge (舟哥) · Nickzhuo, written on the north bank of Suzhou Creek