The Tenth People's Hospital: The "Railway Hospital" of Old Zhabei

Basic information

This piece is about a hospital. But in Zhabei, many people do not use its new name — they call it the "Railway Hospital". A name can survive because it holds a whole group of people's birth, ageing, illness and death.

Why it is called the "Railway Hospital"

First, one detail. A publication of the health system once wrote:

"Speak of the Tenth Hospital, and residents living in the heart of old Zhabei and its surrounding areas habitually call it the 'Railway Hospital', which shows how deep the hospital's roots lie in the railway system."

"The Railway Hospital" — in old Zhabei, that name carries real weight.

The drivers and maintenance men of the locomotive depot, the families in the railway quarters (the Juxicun patch), and the railway workers' households later moved to Pengpu Xincun … where their children were born, where the old ones left this world at the end, where a family went for decades of headaches and fevers — the answer was very often just this name.

This is not simply a "works unit hospital". It is a hospital the railway people handed to Zhabei: born for railway workers first, and then living for this whole stretch of land.

1910: the birth of a railway hospital

The Tenth Hospital's birth certificate has to be turned back to the end of the Qing.

In 1910 the Shanghai–Nanjing Railway Bureau founded a hospital in Shanghai, called the "Shanghai–Nanjing Railway Hospital", on old Pazi Road (today around 527 Wujin Road).

It was one of the earliest hospitals in China's railway system — wherever the railway was built, medical care for injured workers and the sick had to follow. The hospital was born beside the railway, and that origin decided its fate for nearly a century afterwards.

Twice fallen, twice risen: modern history in the life of one hospital

The early timetable of this hospital reads like a miniature modern history:

Twice closed, twice re-established. The fate of one hospital was interrupted again and again by the times — but each time it stood up again, because so long as the railway was there, the people were there too.

That building of 1942 is still standing

The premises rebuilt on Qiujiang Road in 1942 are still here today.

It is a two-storey red-brick historic building: a wang-shaped plan (a central spine crossed by three bars), with a central corridor running north to south, a red pantile pitched roof and a fair-faced red-brick façade — modernist in style, yet carrying the warmth of old Shanghai.

In August 2015 it was declared by the Shanghai Municipal People's Government a Shanghai fifth-batch outstanding historical building (its name on the register is the "Shanghai Railway Hospital", at 1057 Qiujiang Road).

It did not become a museum piece. In the spring of 2026 it was renewed and reopened as the "Tenth Hospital Qiujiang Road campus" — rehabilitation, traditional Chinese medicine and psychological services moved into the century-old building. The line in the news said it better than anything:

"Experience 'light' medicine in a 'heavy' historic building" — so that seeing a doctor is not only about health, but also a conversation with history and culture.

From 1942 to today, this building has never stopped treating people. A building's "use value" and its "historical value" are not a choice of one or the other here — they are the same thing.

From "Railway Bureau Central Hospital" to "the Tenth Hospital"

After the victory in the War of Resistance the hospital was renamed the "Shanghai Railway Hospital of the Shanghai Jing-Hu District Railway Administration". After that it went like this:

• after 1949: the general hospital of the Shanghai Railway Administration;
• August 1950: named the "Shanghai Railway Bureau Central Hospital";
• 1958–1959: it became the first affiliated hospital of the Shanghai Railway Medical College, also known as the college's affiliated hospital;
• 1960: the new premises at 301 Yanzhang Middle Road were completed — the hospital moved from Qiujiang Road into the heart of Zhabei and found its home of today;
• 1975: the Railway Medical College moved to Yinchuan in Ningxia; the hospital stayed in Shanghai and went back to "Shanghai Railway Bureau Central Hospital";
• 1980: the college moved back and reopened, and the hospital once again hung out the sign of an affiliated hospital;
• 1993: it became one of the Ministry of Health's first batch of "Grade 3A" general hospitals;
• 2000: with the merger of colleges and universities, it was renamed the "Railway Hospital Affiliated to Tongji University".

Then came the last turn.

In 2004, under the reform separating the railway system's main business from its auxiliary functions, the hospital was transferred wholesale, as a whole institution, to the Shanghai Municipal People's Government — renamed "Shanghai Tenth People's Hospital / the Tenth People's Hospital Affiliated to Tongji University". At the unveiling ceremony the theme written across the backdrop was: "carry on the past and open the future, win glory again".

Ninety-four years of the "railway era" thus came to a close; but the name "Railway Hospital" did not close in Zhabei.

301 Yanzhang Middle Road

For people living in the Pengpu and Daning area, 301 Yanzhang Middle Road is a very familiar place.

It and Zhabei Central Hospital stand one north and one south, each guarding a stretch of the city — Zhabei Central Hospital looks after the old Chinese city around Zhonghua Xin Road, and the Tenth Hospital looks after Daning and Pengpu north of Yanzhang Road. Two big hospitals in one district are the memory-coordinates on which several generations fixed their illnesses and hospital stays.

Its scale, its beds and its figures are not written here — what is written in this book is what no figure can buy:

"The Railway Hospital" in people's mouths is more of a nameplate than any honour or title. It was issued to this hospital by a hundred years, and cannot be taken away.

Practical tips

1. It is a hospital, not a sight — anxious people come seeking treatment every day, so please keep quiet and keep the way clear;
2. the main campus: 301 Yanzhang Middle Road (near Yanzhang Road station on Metro Line 1); for emergency and outpatient services, follow the hospital's directions;
3. if you want a look at that old building: go to 1057 Qiujiang Road (the Qiujiang Road campus) — red brick, pitched roof, a wang-shaped plan; one look and you know it has lived through more than one era; but please enter as a patient would, and do not treat it as a "check-in spot" and disturb the medical staff and patients;
4. how to read it alongside others: read this piece together with the Shanghai Railway Locomotive Depot — the railway people's hospital, the railway people's locomotives and the railway people's dormitories are different chapters of one history.

Connections

• Sub-district：Daning Road Subdistrict
• See also：Zhabei Central Hospital, Shanghai Railway Locomotive Depot, Daning Road Subdistrict, Shanghai Railway Station

Sources: the founding date (the Shanghai–Nanjing Railway Bureau's establishment of the "Shanghai–Nanjing Railway Hospital" in 1910, on old Pazi Road, today around 527 Wujin Road), its closure in 1915, its rebuilding in 1933 (25 beds), its move to near the Shanghai West Station after the "August 13" incident and renaming as the Railway Wounded-Soldiers Hospital and its break-up in December of that year, its rebuilding on Qiujiang Road in 1942 by the Japanese-puppet Central China Railway Co., Ltd. as the "Shanghai Railway Hospital", its renaming after the victory in the War of Resistance as the Shanghai Railway Hospital of the Shanghai Jing-Hu District Railway Administration, its renaming in August 1950 as the Shanghai Railway Bureau Central Hospital, its assignment in 1959 to the Shanghai Railway Medical College to become an affiliated hospital, the completion of the new premises at 301 Yanzhang Middle Road in 1960, the restoration of its name after the medical college moved to Yinchuan in Ningxia in 1975, its again being called an affiliated hospital after the college moved back in 1980, its becoming one of the Ministry of Health's first batch of Grade 3A hospitals in 1993, and its transfer as a whole institution to Shanghai municipality and renaming as Shanghai Tenth People's Hospital in 2004 follow the institutional profile on the official website of Shanghai Tenth People's Hospital, the People's Daily app's "Happy 110th Birthday, Tongji's Tenth Hospital", and related articles in the Shanghai health system's publication Health Political Work (cross-checked against several sources, Grade B); "in a 115-year history, fully ninety-four years under the railway system", "residents living in the heart of old Zhabei and its surrounding areas habitually call it the 'Railway Hospital'", the renaming and unveiling ceremony of 29 May 2004 and the theme words "carry on the past and open the future, win glory again" follow the same article in Health Political Work (Grade B); that the Qiujiang Road premises are the site of the Shanghai Railway Hospital built in 1942, its two storeys of red brick, its wang-shaped plan, its fair-faced red-brick façade and its red pantile pitched roof, and its declaration on 17 August 2015 as a Shanghai fifth-batch outstanding historical building (register number 5H002, address 1057 Qiujiang Road), follow the Shanghai Housing Administration Bureau's fifth-batch register of outstanding historical buildings and introductory material on the branch hospital of Shanghai Tenth People's Hospital (the Shanghai Railway Hospital) (Grade B); the renewal and reopening of the Qiujiang Road campus in May 2026, its five "light" medical centres and its idea of "experiencing 'light' medicine in a 'heavy' historic building" follow a report of 6 May 2026 on Shanghai Online (Grade B); the hospital's address (301 Yanzhang Middle Road) and its Qiujiang Road branch (1057 Qiujiang Road) follow the hospital's official website; that its sub-district is Daning Road Subdistrict follows the Daning Road Subdistrict page of the Jing'an District People's Government of Shanghai (Grade B). The full bibliography is in Appendix 4.