Appendix 2 · A Chronology of Zhabei
Note: this table is arranged chronologically and covers every key point in Zhabei from its "naming" to its "abolition". For the sources of the material relating to the years given, see Appendix 4.
One: naming and before the port opened (1675–1842)
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 1675 (the fourteenth year of the Kangxi reign) | a water gate is built on the Wusong River near what is today the Fujian Road Bridge, later called the Old Gate |
| 1735 (the thirteenth year of the Yongzheng reign) | the New Gate is built about three li west of the Old Gate, at Jinjiawan (near today's Xinzha Road Bridge) |
| the Jiaqing reign | markets form around the Old Gate and the New Gate; the New Gate market is the main berth for shipping on the lower Wusong River |
| late Daoguang to early Tongzhi | migrants flow in from all quarters; the poor put up shacks in the south of the district and settle there; natural villages such as Meiyuantou and the Tangjia Lane settlement appear |
| — | country roads run from the Old Gate and the New Gate to Jiangwan town, Dachang town and Zhenru town |
Two: the self-opened port and the 1911 Restoration (1843–1911)
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 1843 | the port of Shanghai opens |
| from 1863 (the second year of the Tongzhi reign) | the south-eastern corner of the district is successively drawn into the American concession (later merged into the International Settlement), reaching about 0.73 km² by 1893 |
| 1876 (the second year of the Guangxu reign) | the Wusong Railway, built without authority by British merchants, opens, with a Shanghai station at today's junction of Henan North Road and Qipu Road (later bought up and dismantled by the Qing government) |
| 1898 | the rebuilt Shanghai–Wusong Railway opens, with the Shanghai station at the southern end of Baoshan Road |
| 1899 | the northern boundary of the International Settlement is pushed to the line of today's Tianmu East Road, East Jiaxing Road and the southern end of Jungong Road; Zhabei now faces concessions on three sides |
| 1900 (the twenty-sixth year of the Guangxu reign) | the Zhabei Engineering Bureau is founded (initiated by the Cantonese merchant Chen Shaochang, the Zhejiang merchant Zhu Chenggui and others, with the support of Liu Kunyi, governor-general of Liangjiang) — Shanghai's first privately run municipal body |
| from 1900 | North Henan Road (today's Henan North Road), Baoshan Road, Xindaqiao Road, Xinzhaqiao Road and others are built |
| 1904 | the Commercial Press buys 300 mu of land east of Baoshan Road and opens its main works |
| 1909–1910 | Haichang Road, South/North Chuanhong Road and Baoxing Road are built, and the roads form a network |
| late 1908 | the Shanghai–Nanjing Railway opens along its whole length, and Zhabei becomes the land transport hub linking Shanghai with the interior |
| 1911 | the Zhabei Water and Electricity Company is founded (brokered by Cai Bohao, the Shanghai circuit intendant, Li Pingshu, chief director of the General Engineering Bureau, and others) |
| 1911 | the Zhabei Self-Government Office is established |
| 3 Nov 1911 | the Zhabei police answer the Wuchang rising and win the first victory at the Zhabei police bureau |
| 1911 | the Central China Bureau of the United League, which Song Jiaoren, Chen Qimei, Tan Renfeng and others had been preparing, holds its founding congress in Zhabei; that same year Zhabei is restored |
Three: the base of Chinese-owned industry (1912–1927)
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| after the 1911 Revolution | Zhabei town is established and the Zhabei Municipal Office set up; major changes are made to the old street names (Gonghe Road, Guangfu Road, the five-races-in-one-republic series) |
| 20 Mar 1913 | Song Jiaoren is assassinated at the Shanghai North Railway Station; on 22 March he dies of his wounds |
| 26 Jun 1913 | Song Jiaoren is buried at Xiangyi Lane in Zhabei (today's Zhabei Park) |
| Jun 1914 | Song Jiaoren's burial ground is completed |
| 1920 | building of Gonghexin Road begins |
| 1921 | Shen Yanbing (Mao Dun) and Shen Zemin, editors at the Commercial Press, join the Shanghai communist group one after the other |
| 23 Oct 1922 | Shanghai University is founded on Qingyun Road (with Yu Youren as president) |
| Jul 1923 | the Central Bureau of the CCP Central Committee moves to No. 3 Sanzeng Lane in Zhabei (until June 1924) |
| 1924 | the Oriental Library is completed (a five-storey reinforced-concrete building, holding at most 463,000 volumes) |
| May 1924 | Tagore lectures at the Oriental Library, with Xu Zhimo and Lin Huiyin translating |
| May 1925 | the May Thirtieth Massacre; the preparatory committee of the Shanghai General Trade Union is set up in Yingye Lane on Huiwen Road in Zhabei |
| 1 Jun 1925 | the Shanghai General Trade Union is founded at No. 2 Baoshan Lane, Baoshan Road (with Li Lisan as chairman and Liu Shaoqi as head of the general affairs section) |
| Oct 1925 | the Shanghai Regional Executive Committee of the CCP decides to set up the Zhabei District Committee of the CCP |
| 24 Oct 1926 | the Shanghai workers' first armed uprising (failure) |
| 22 Feb 1927 | the Shanghai workers' second armed uprising (failure) |
| 21–22 Mar 1927 | the Shanghai workers' third armed uprising; the battle in Zhabei, its main battlefield, ends in victory |
| 24 Mar 1927 | the Shanghai General Trade Union moves into the Huzhou Guild Hall to work |
| 27 Mar 1927 | Wang Shouhua is chosen chairman of the Shanghai General Trade Union |
| 11 Apr 1927 | Wang Shouhua is lured to Du's mansion and killed (aged only 26) |
| 12 Apr 1927 | the April 12 counter-revolutionary coup |
| 13 Apr 1927 | the Baoshan Road Massacre (100,000 marching demonstrators machine-gunned near Sandeli on Baoshan Road) |
| 1927 | the name "Zhabei District" begins to appear |
Four: the founding of the district and two great calamities (1928–1945)
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 1928 | Zhabei District is formally established, under the Special Municipality of Shanghai |
| Sep 1929 | the Shanghai Special Municipal Government allocates funds to repair Song Garden and opens it as a public park |
| 28 Jan 1932 | the January 28 Incident: the Japanese attack Zhabei and the 19th Route Army rises to resist |
| 29 Jan 1932 | before dawn, Japanese aircraft bomb Zhabei; the Commercial Press and the Oriental Library on Baoshan Road are destroyed; the Japanese run riot in Zhabei for 28 days |
| 1 Feb 1932 | Japanese ronin set fire to the Oriental Library; all 460,000 volumes are burned |
| 2 Mar 1932 | the Japanese army occupies Zhabei |
| 5 May 1932 | the Shanghai Armistice Agreement is signed |
| 21 May 1932 | the railway reopens and Zhabei begins to rebuild |
| 1 Aug 1932 | the Commercial Press reopens |
| 1936 | there are 574 factories in the Zhabei area, 34.02% of the 1,687 factories in the five districts |
| 13 Aug 1937 | the August 13 Battle of Shanghai breaks out |
| 26 Oct 1937 | Xie Jinyuan is ordered to hold Zhabei with more than 420 men |
| 27 Oct 1937 | the "Eight Hundred Heroes" move into Sihang Warehouse and the fighting begins |
| 28 Oct 1937 | Chen Shusheng straps himself with grenades and leaps to his death together with the enemy |
| 31 Oct 1937 | the "Eight Hundred Heroes" are ordered to withdraw into the International Settlement |
| from 28 Oct 1937 | Japanese aircraft drop incendiaries; Zhabei burns for 3 days |
| 1937–1945 | Shanghai falls; the Japanese run amok in Zhabei for 80 days (within 3 months of 1937); the North Station is renamed "Shanghai Station"; more than 95% of the buildings are reduced to ruins |
| 24 Apr 1941 | Xie Jinyuan is stabbed to death by a soldier bought by the Wang puppet government, aged 37 |
| 1945 | the war of resistance is won; the area is reorganised into the 14th and 15th administrative districts |
Five: liberation, reorganisation and the workers' new villages (1945–1978)
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 1946 | Song Garden is renamed Jiaoren Park |
| 1947 | the two districts are renamed Zhabei District and Beizhan District respectively |
| 27 May 1949 | the Chinese People's Liberation Army liberates the whole area |
| 28 May 1950 | Jiaoren Park is renamed Zhabei Park |
| Jun 1950 | the two districts of Zhabei and Beizhan each set up a CCP district committee and a district people's government |
| 1952 | Fangua Lane thoroughly clears its gundilong and rebuilds thatched and tiled single-storey houses |
| 1956 | the two districts of Zhabei and Beizhan merge to form Zhabei District (area 6.70 km²); 3,160 private factories and 6,433 private shops are brought under joint state–private management |
| 1957 | the original value of the fixed assets of industrial enterprises is 53,637,300 yuan, a twelvefold increase over 1951 |
| from 1958 | the Pengpu industrial zone, chiefly for the electromechanical industry, is opened up |
| 1958 | Pengpu Xincun is first built: 56 blocks of workers' housing, with a floor area of 169,000 m², into which more than 1,200 households move |
| Nov 1958 | the Northern Suburbs District is abolished and the area from Zhongshan North Road to Changzhong Road is transferred into Zhabei District |
| 1962 | the area between Luofu Road and Baoshan Road in Hongkou District is transferred in |
| 1963–1965 | Fangua Lane becomes the city's first pilot for redeveloping a contiguous shantytown, and in 1965 Shanghai's first five-storey workers' new village (31 blocks) is completed |
| 1964 | Zhijiangmiao Road is renamed Zhijiang West Road (to commemorate the victory in the war of resistance, named after Zhijiang, where the Japanese surrendered) |
| 1972 | the Italian director Antonioni shoots the documentary China, filming in Fangua Lane |
| Nov 1978 | Pengpu sub-district is abolished and Gonghexin Road sub-district and Pengpu Xincun sub-district are set up |
Six: thirty years of catching up (1979–2015)
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 1982 | the area between Changzhong Road and Fenxi Road in Baoshan county is transferred into Zhabei District |
| 1984 | parts of Baoshan county are transferred in, and the district's northern boundary is extended to the North Changbang |
| Feb 1985 | split off from Gonghexin Road sub-district, Daning Road sub-district is set up |
| Aug 1987 | Fenghuo sub-district is renamed Zhijiang West Road sub-district |
| 28 Dec 1987 | the new Shanghai Railway passenger station is completed and opens, named "Shanghai Station"; the old North Station formally closes |
| Jan 1988 | split off from Pengpu Xincun sub-district, Linfen Road sub-district is set up |
| Sep 1991 | Shanxi North Road sub-district is abolished and merged into Beizhan sub-district; Xinjiang Road and Kaifeng Road sub-districts are abolished and Xizang North Road sub-district is set up; Hanzhong Road sub-district is abolished and merged into Tianmu West Road sub-district |
| Sep 1992 | Pengpu township (Tangnan and Longtan villages) in Baoshan District is transferred in; Pengpu township is abolished and Pengpu town is set up |
| 1993 | Zhabei District has 904 factories, with a gross industrial output value of 10.339 billion yuan; it is divided into 12 sub-districts and 1 township |
| 1996 | the 8 sub-districts south of Zhongshan North Road are abolished and the 4 sub-districts of Tianmu West Road, Beizhan, Baoshan Road and Zhijiang West Road are rebuilt; the whole district is divided into 8 sub-districts and 1 town |
| Sep 1997 | parts of Baoshan District are transferred in, and the northern boundary is extended west of Gonghexin Road, to the high-voltage corridor line south of Gongkang Road |
| 1999 | Shanghai Circus World opens |
| May 1999 | parts of the western side of the Hengfeng Road flyover are transferred into Putuo District, giving the present boundaries |
| 2000 | building of Daning Lingshi Park begins; the Daning commercial and cultural centre gradually takes shape; the Shanghai Railway Museum is built on the fabric of the old North Station building |
| Aug 2004 | the Shanghai Railway Museum opens to the public |
| from 2005 | Pengpu Xincun sub-district is the first in the city to press ahead with the full refurbishment of old housing (the "Pengpu model") |
| 2006 | the new Daning centre takes shape |
| 2008 | the Daning Group is founded, developing the north side of Lingshi Park as a whole, with a commercial-offices and industry cluster centred on Daning Music Square |
| 2010 | Zhabei District's resident population is 830,476 (the sixth census) |
| late 2013 | the district's resident population is 847,300; it administers 8 sub-districts and 1 town, with 211 residents' committees |
| 13 Oct 2015 | the State Council approves the abolition of Zhabei District and Jing'an District and the creation of a new Jing'an District |
| 4 Nov 2015 | the Shanghai municipal party committee and government hold a working meeting and formally announce the "merger of two districts into one"; the name "Zhabei" passes formally into history |
Seven: after the merger (2015 to today, for reference)
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| Mar 2016 | the "merger of two districts into one" of the former Jing'an and the former Zhabei is completed, and the new Jing'an District is created |
| 2018 | Zhabei Park is renovated as a whole, strengthening its features as a classical Chinese garden |
| 2023 | work begins on the refurbishment (demolition and rebuilding) of the old housing in the Fangua Lane estate (14 old blocks → 1 seven-storey block + 5 blocks of 21–33 storeys) |
| Jun 2025 | residents move back into the Pengyi estate, and Pengpu Xincun becomes the first sub-district or town in the city to complete the refurbishment of contiguous non-self-contained old housing |
| 2027 | the Fangua Lane redevelopment is expected to be handed over (planned) |
A few cross-year comparisons
| Dimension | Before 1932 | After the war of resistance | Before the 2015 abolition |
|---|---|---|---|
| Factories | 45.23% of the city's large factories | only 27 left | Shibei Hi-Tech Park (science and innovation) |
| Buildings | the cream of the Chinese-administered area | 95% in ruins | the modern Daning residential district |
| Population | 548,400 (1949, Zhabei + Beizhan) | — | 847,300 |
| Area | 6.70 km² (1956) | — | 29.19 km² |
| Nicknames | "the Nanjing Road of Zhabei" | "the bare-armed district", xiazhijiao (the low quarter) | — |