Linfen Road: From a Cemetery to a Quiet Neighbourhood
In one line
The youngest sub-district in Zhabei (established 1988); beneath it lie an alluvial plain that began building up in the Northern Song and a burial estate of a thousand mu.
Where it is
Linfen Road sub-district lies in the north of the district and covers about 1.98–2.12 km²:
To the east it starts at Jiangyang South Road, adjoining Hongkou District; to the west it runs to Lingnan Road, bordering Pengpu Xincun sub-district; to the south it stands on the Beijiao station; to the north it faces Jingfeng Road, touching Baoshan District.
Its office stands at Lane 345 / No. 345 Baode Road.
The name: another Shanxi place name
Linfen Road is the name of a principal east–west road within the sub-district; the road is named after a place name in Shanxi province.
Linfen is a prefecture-level city in Shanxi. So Zhabei has two sub-districts named after Shanxi places: Daning Road sub-district (Daning County) and Linfen Road sub-district (Linfen city). Many street names in this area belong to the "other provinces" series.
Lineage: split off from Pengpu Xincun in 1988
| Time | Event |
|---|---|
| On the eve of liberation | Under the Ninth Bao of Jiangwan District |
| Jun 1949 | Under the Jiangwan District takeover committee |
| 1950 | Under Jiangyang village and Shengli village of Jiangwan District |
| 1956 | Under Jiangyang township and Shengli township of Beijiao District |
| 1958 | Under the Jiangyang and Shengli production brigades of the Xianfeng people's commune, Baoshan County |
| Sep 1984 | Parts of the land of Jiangyang village and Shengli village are transferred into Zhabei District, under the Pengpu Xincun sub-district office |
| Jan 1988 | Split off from Pengpu Xincun sub-district to establish the Linfen Road sub-district office, which opened to the public that October |
| Oct 2015 | Comes under Jing'an District |
Note the two steps 1984 → 1988: the land only passed from Baoshan into Zhabei in 1984, and the sub-district was set up in 1988. From "transferred in" to "sub-district established" took only four years. That is the typical rhythm of Zhabei's expansion years.
The ground: from the Northern Song to today
The "geological record" of Linfen Road sub-district is interesting: it notes a thousand years of change on this land.
The ground is alluvial plain of the Yangtze delta. In the Northern Song there was a north–south main channel, the Sitang River. Migrants moved in and gradually formed Wujiazhai, Puxizhai and Guojiazhai. In the late Yuan the Xiaochang Temple was built. From the Qing to the early Republic there was an east–west tributary, the North Changbang. In year 13 of the Republic (1924) the Guangzhao Shanzhuang was built, covering more than 300 mu, later extended to more than 1,000 mu.
Unpacked:
| Period | What it left |
|---|---|
| Northern Song | Sitang River (north–south main channel) |
| Between Song and Yuan | Wujiazhai, Puxizhai, Guojiazhai (migrant settlements) |
| Late Yuan | Xiaochang Temple |
| Qing to early Republic | North Changbang |
| 1924 | Guangzhao Shanzhuang (300-plus mu → 1,000-plus mu) |
A forgotten landmark: the Guangzhao Shanzhuang
The Guangzhao Shanzhuang turns up remarkably often in Zhabei. We have met it in at least these places:
- Guangzhao Road (today's Tianmu West Road) takes its name from it;
- the Zhabei Water and Electricity Company was first set up "north of the Guangzhao Shanzhuang on Hengfeng Road";
- the Linfen Road sub-district area also had a Guangzhao Shanzhuang, built in 1924, covering 300-plus mu and later extended past 1,000 mu;
- the Pengpu area had one too (the Kuaidong Baike entry for Pengpu Xincun sub-district mentions a Guangzhao Shanzhuang built east of today's Pingshun Road, a resting place for the dead of Guangzhou and Zhaoqing origin).
What is the Guangzhao Shanzhuang? It is a charitable burial estate and cemetery for people from Guangdong (Guangzhou and Zhaoqing) who had come to Shanghai. In modern Shanghai it was very common for native-place associations to run such estates — when a fellow native died with nowhere to be buried, the estate provided ground, a place to lay the coffin, and a place for offerings.
A burial estate of a thousand mu is the plainest kind of warmth a migrant city can offer. And the two characters "Guangzhao" survive for that reason in the street names of Zhabei today.
A passage from Kuaidong Baike
Kuaidong Baike has one more remark about Linfen Road sub-district, saying that here:
since 1991, under the leadership of the Party, the sub-district has created one working brand after another in Party-building, grassroots governance and spiritual civilisation in urban sub-district communities.
That passage is about community governance — Linfen Road sub-district is well known in Zhabei for its grassroots governance. And that fits its position: a residential sub-district newly built in 1988, made up mainly of workers and relocated residents, whose greatest need, and greatest skill, is community services.
A set of figures (as before abolition)
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Area | 1.98–2.12 km² |
| Resident population (2010 census) | 78,079 |
| Residents' committees | 19–20 |
| Office | Lane 345 / No. 345 Baode Road |
What to see here today
- Baode Road, Fenxi Road, Yangqu Road and Wenxi Road: this stretch is a typical workers' village residential area;
- Linfen Road: look at the street sign, and remember it is the name of a Shanxi city;
- There is no big attraction here, but it is the best specimen for understanding "how Zhabei was filled in, one sub-district at a time".
Sources: the derivation of the name follows the Boya place-name directory's "Origins of the place names of the sub-districts and towns of Jing'an District"; the ground and the institutional lineage follow the Kuaidong Baike entry for Linfen Road sub-district and the xzqh.org entry for Linfen Road sub-district (class C, cross-checked). The full bibliography is in Appendix 4.