The name of the district under the administrative structure of Changning District is taken from the road name of Changning Road, and the road name is derived from the name of Changning County, Sichuan Province. This year marks the 120th birthday of Changning Road. Before 1943, Changning Road was called "Bai li nan road", and "Bai Li Nan" came from the name of "Baron Bai Li Nan", the British consul general in Shanghai at that time.
Changning Road, from Hami Road to Gubei Road, runs parallel to Suzhou Creek (Photo by Yao Zhikang)
Chikubaili South Road originates from Caojiadu
In the late Qing Dynasty, the ancient town of Fahua in Shanghai County declined, and its commercial function shifted to Caojiadu on the north side of the south bank of the Wusong River (Suzhou Creek). Cao Jiadu (曹家渡) is the name given to the place where Cao Yang, a descendant of the Cao clan, set up a yidu between the Sanguantang Temple on the south bank of the Wusong River and the Changsheng Nunnery on the north bank of the Wusong River between the Ming Dynasty and the Wanli Dynasty (year unknown).
Caojiadu relies on the convenience of land and water transportation, and the business flourishes. At the same time, the ancient town of Beixinjing, which is also on the south bank of the Wusong River in the west, entered a good place. However, there is no road access between the two municipalities. Shanghai locals call the western suburbs "West Sea" and the eastern central city "East Sea". Cao Jiadu's demand for radiation commerce to the "West Sea" is even stronger, and the "West Sea" at this moment is still in the era of pastoral farming.
Caojiadu Ferry Port in the Late Qing Dynasty (Source Network)
In 1901 (the 27th year of Guangxu), the Ministry of Public Concession Bureau started the construction of Baili South Road, Sheshan Road (Hongqiao Road) and Luobigen Road (Hami Road). Baili South Road runs from Caojiadu to Robegan Road for a total length of 16 miles. It started as a dirt road and was paved with coal shavings. By the early 1930s, the eastern section of the Caojiadu-Shanghai-Hangzhou railway (now the base of the No. 3 rail transit line) was paved with asphalt pavement; by the end of the 1940s, the section of the Shanghai-Hangzhou railway to Hobbilan Road (Gubei Road) was paved with asphalt pavement.
At the beginning of the construction, the road width was very narrow, and the road width from Yidingpan Road (Jiangsu Road) to Zhaofeng Garden (Zhongshan Park) was 12.19 meters, and the middle road surface was only 8.53 meters, which was divided into lanes and horse roads. The road width west of the Shanghai-Hangzhou Railway to Hobilland Road is similar to the eastern section. The road from Hobilland Road to Robegan is less than 7 meters, with one side clinging to the flood control wall and the other side clinging to factories and houses.
Street view of Kaixuan Intersection of Changning Road in the 1980s (Photo from District Geographical Names Office)
In the 1980s, Changning Road (Shanghai-Hangzhou Railway West) Fan Genglang along the street (photo from the District Geographical Names Office)
In the 1980s, Changning Road, west of Gubei Road, was close to Suzhou Creek (Photo from District Geographical Names Office)
Along the road is the birthplace of national industry
The starting point of Changning Road (Baili South Road) and the end of Changshou Road (Robertson Road) are at caojiadu. Before the construction of Baili South Road, there was no industry of modern significance along the Suzhou Creek. Entering the Republic of China era, modern industry appeared. In the 4th year of the Republic of China (1915), the Wuxi industrialists Rong Zongjing and Rong Desheng brothers purchased 117,000 square meters of land on the south bank of the Suzhou River, north of Baili South Road, east to Triangle Field and west to Hobilan Road, and built a factory of more than 110,000 square meters, namely Shenxin First Cotton Spinning Factory (in 1929, Shenxin Eighth Factory was added), which was merged into Shanghai No. 21 Cotton Spinning Factory (now Shanghai Flower City Community and Hongqiao Riverside Garden) after liberation. In May 1929, Wu Yunchu, a Jiading native, purchased a large piece of land at No. 420 Baili South Road and raised 200,000 silver yuan to establish Tianli Electrochemical Factory (later Tianyuan Chemical Factory), which became the first chlor-alkali factory in China.
In the 1980s, Changning Road in front of the Shangmian 21 Factory, the white wall in the upper right corner was the main entrance of the factory (photo from the District Geographical Names Office)
Hongqiao Riverside Garden and Shanghai Flower City built on the plot of Shangmian 21 Factory (Photo by Yao Zhikang)
After entering the 1930s, the factories along Changning Road exploded, taking stock of the factories west of Caojiadu: Meilun Cotton Wool Dyeing and Weaving Factory (moved to Beizhai Road after liberation), Daming Iron Factory (moved to Admiralty Road after 1990), Huayang Hardware Factory, Xinyu Weaving Factory, Changning Battery Factory, Anle Cotton Wool Textile Factory (Shanghai First Weaving Factory), Cold Rolled Strip Factory (later merged into Shanggang Tenth Factory), Dafu Rubber Factory, Japanese-funded Toyota Iron works (later Shanghai First Textile Machinery Factory), Yongda Dyeing and Weaving Factory No. 1 (Shanghai Third Weaving Factory), Shenxin Textile Factory No. 1 and No. 8 Factory (later Shangmian No. 21 Factory).
Daming Iron Factory on Changning Road (near Jiangsu Road) in the 1980s (photo from the District Geographical Names Office)
1986 Shanghai No. 1 Weaving Factory, No. 546 Changning Road, Now Shangjie Guild Hall (Photo from District Geographical Names Office)
After crossing Gubei Road, there are Shunchang Stone Powder Factory, Tianyuan Chemical Factory, Auto Repair No. 5 Factory (built after liberation), Shanggang Tenth Factory No. 4 Workshop (built after liberation), Brick and Tile Machinery Factory (built after liberation), Gulong Printing and Dyeing Factory (Shanghai First Silk Printing and Dyeing Factory). Undoubtedly, Baili South Road has become one of the birthplaces of Shanghai's national industry. In the 37th year of the Republic of China (1948), business owners west of the Shanghai-Hangzhou Railway made requests to the authorities to renovate Changning Road, which turned the Changning Road from Shanghai-Hangzhou Railway to Gubei Road into asphalt pavement. The coal-chip pavement west of Gubei Road was maintained until after the liberation of Shanghai.
Shunchang Stone Powder Factory and Tianyuan Chemical Factory on Changning Road, west of Gubei Road in the 1980s (Photo by Zheng Huiguo)
2019 same angle to shoot the new look of the changning road west of Gubei Road (photo By Yao Zhikang)
There are three commercial downtowns on Changning Road
Caojiadu District, in 1945 Shanghai No. 9 District, 1947 Changning District, 1948 Fa Cao District (Fahua, Caojiadu) and after the founding of the People's Republic of China Changning District, are all within the district. In 1959, after the administrative division of Shanghai was adjusted, the east of Zhenning Road was assigned to Jing'an District, and a regional pattern of caojiadu three districts was formed. Changning Road and Wanhangdu Hou road west (now Wanhangdu Road) belong to Changning District; Huxi Cinema (now Shanghai Friendship Store) and Changshou Road east and north to Putuo District; Changshou Road South and Wanhangdu Road east to Jing'an District.
The left building is in the territory of Putuo, the right building is in the territory of Jing'an, the sign under the picture is in the territory of Changning, and the location of the "Middle Island" in the wujiao field of the green belt on the right
(Photo by Yao Zhikang)
The three downtown areas are Caojiadu at the eastern end, Zhoujiaqiao at the western end, and Shanghai West Railway Station at the middle end. The eastern end of Caojiadu is commonly known as "Wujiaochang", in the intersection of Changning Road, Changning Branch Road, Changshou Road, Wanhangdu Road is a "Middle Island", the fourth road in the "Middle Island" is five intersections, "Wujiaochang" got its name. Today, the reason why the "Wujiaochang" is no longer there is that when 88 Jinting Square was developed, the Changning Branch Road was diverted, and the exit was moved 100 meters to the west, and the original "Middle Island" became a "ten" intersection. Cao Jiadu began to build the Jisifei Road (Wanhangdu Road) in the British Concession in the twelfth year of Qing Daoguang (1862), and prosperity accelerated. Restaurants, restaurants, tea shops, theaters and grocery stores on the riverside shore came into being. In the eighteenth year of Guangxu (1892), a merchant bought land here to open an oil mill (commonly known as an oil truck). "Then a silk reeling factory was opened in the western section, a flour mill was opened in the eastern section, and men and women were gathered to work, clothed and eaten in Si, and thousands of people gathered in Si, so that houses and shops were built on both sides of the road, and hundreds of workers lived in a city." (Excerpted from the Republic of China's "Fahua Township Chronicle", vol. 1) Freight terminals such as Zhentai, Xinchang, and Bian Hengji were also built on both sides of the strait, and for a time, the market prospered.
The old appearance of Caojiadu Wujiaochang in the 1980s (Source Network)
Now Changning Road Caojiadu pedestrian bridge to the west overlooking Changning Road (Photo by Yao Zhikang)
The western end of the Zhoujiaqiao town appeared nearly 30 years later than Caojiadu. The prosperity of Zhoujiaqiao began with Rong's opening of Shenxin Textile Factory and Zhang's construction of Dade Oil Factory. Commercial agglomeration in Changning Road Wanhangdu Road intersection formed by the "D" intersection, commonly known as the triangle field, all kinds of shops in the triangle field at the east and west ends of the triangle field stretch for half a mile. The reason why the "triangle field" is no longer there is that in the late 1990s, Loushanguan Road and Wanhangdu Road were connected to the "Ten" intersection. In 1922, the first post office in the district, the Zhoujiaqiao Post Office, was opened at No. 1335 Changning Road, and now this post office is moved to the east side of the gate of Zhongshan Apartment. After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Zhoujiaqiao, as a occupied area, spontaneously formed a grain trading market "Zhoujiaqiao Rice Market" because it was close to the eastern concession, and the commercial deformity developed and became famous for a while.
1980s Changning Road Wanhangdu Road intersection triangle field street view (photo from the District Geographical Names Office)
In the middle of the Shanghai West Railway Station area, east of Kaixuan Road on Changning Road, zhongshan park. The emergence of this downtown began with the completion of the Fanhuangdu station of the Shanghai-Hangzhou Railway. In 1915, the Shanghai-Hangzhou Railway Was specially built to connect Shanghai North Railway Station (Shanghai-Nanjing Line) and South Railway Station (Shanghai-Hangzhou Line), and Fanhuangdu Station was set up on the south bank of the Suzhou River, which was renamed Shanghai West Railway Station in 1935.
After the station was put into use in December 1916, there was a lot of people in the surrounding area. Shops lined up on both sides of Changning Road east of Kaixuan Road. In 1922, the earliest bus line in the district: Jing'an Temple - Caojiadu - Zhaofeng Park Ring Line was opened, Jing'an Temple departed from Caojiadu, went west along Changning Road to Zhaofeng Park and returned to the south side of Yuyuan Road, forming a ring line and increasing the prosperity of the West Railway Station area. Shanghai West Railway Station was renamed Changning Station in 1989 and demolished in 1997, and the original site is the current railway hall of Zhongshan Park Station.
Early 1990s Changning Road Railway Crossing (Source Network)
Zhongshan Park Station, a rail transit completed in December 2000 (Photo by Yao Zhikang)
"Only the upper corner and the lower corner" coexist all the way
Changning Road is described in Shanghai slang as "the upper corner and the lower corner" coexist. "Upper corner" such as Mega Villa, West Park Building. Zhongshan Park east of Zhao Feng Villa (Lane 712, Changning Road) was built in 1929 by Zhejiang Industrial Bank, and more than 50 three-storey townhouses were built in more than 10 years, inhabited by a group of Kuomintang government officials and high-class people. For example, the patriotic general Zhang Zhizhong once lived in No. 77, the veteran newspaperman Yan Chensheng lived in No. 129, and Yu Hongjun, who was successively the mayor of Shanghai of the Kuomintang, the minister of finance, and the president of the central bank, lived in No. 115. Across the road, the West Park Tower is an English-style 9-storey apartment building completed in 1912. The building was leased out in sets to foreigners and wealthy merchants. Before 1940, Lu Xiaojia, the son of Zhejiang overseer Lu Yongxiang, and Yuan Huixie, a beauty in Qingdao, lived in room 8 on the 4th floor of the apartment. Deng Zhonghe, a famous industrial and commercialist in Shanghai, and Tong Zhiling, a famous Peking Opera performance artist, also lived in the apartment.
Diagonally opposite ZhaoFeng Villa, no. 593 Changning Road is Shanghai Private Fenghua Middle School (the predecessor of Changning Middle School). The school was founded in 1946 by Chiang Kai-shek's second son, Jiang Weiguo, Mao Qingxiang, Mao Shengdong and other Fenghua Township Parties, and was one of only two complete middle schools in the early liberation period of Changning District. In 2002, the school moved to No. 9, Lane 1302, Changning Road, and the original site was built as the Changning District Government Office Building.
Zhaofeng Villa, Lane 712, Changning Road (Photo by Yao Zhikang)
Changning Middle School (formerly No. 593 Changning Road) is now the District Government Building (Photo from the District Geographical Names Office)
The "Lower Corner" shantytown is concentrated in contiguous pieces, counting from east to west: the shantytown behind Lu Xuezhai on the west side of Caojiadu stretches to the Suzhou River, and the pig hair factory plot south of Lu Xuezhai (formerly Lane 427 of Changning Road) is also densely packed. The west side of Zhongshan Park is surrounded by Sujiajiao shantytowns, and to the south of Sujiajiao is Xixin Street, the largest shantytown in Changning District. Across the Shanghai-Hangzhou Railway, Fan Genglang (present-day Changning New Town) on the north side and ZhuJiazhai (present-day Zhongshan Apartment) on the south side. Crossing Zhongshan West Road, the southwest corner of the 464 lane plot, known as the "Anhui North West Village" shantytown was a settlement of Anhui refugees during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. To the west, Li Jiazhai and Lin Jiazhai are wrapped in small Henan shantytowns, and Lubei Qiangjiajiao is also wrapped in shantytowns. Further west are Gujia Lane, Yangjiazhai and Lijiamen all submerged in shantytowns, and across Gubei Road is the famous shantytown "Subeili". This pattern of old local houses and shantytowns was maintained until the 1990s.
A glimpse of the Lane of West New Street, Changning Road in the 1980s (Photo from the District Geographical Names Office)
Unicom Building, New Space-time Plaza, And Mega Plaza built on the West New Street plot (Photo by Yao Zhikang)
Old appearance south of Changning Road, Zhoujiaqiao No. 1 plot in the 1980s (Photo from the District Geographical Names Office)
Between Plot 1 and Lot 2, Loushanguan Road and Changning Road (Photo by Yao Zhikang)
Two cultural landmarks on Changning Road
The two cultural landmarks are Zhongshan Park and Santa Maria Girls' High School. In 1914, the Ministry of Public Concession Bureau acquired a private garden named "Zhaofeng" on Jisifeier Road (Wanhangdu Road), which was expanded and opened to the public and renamed Zhaofeng Park. In 1917, the park was expanded southwards with the opening of the South Gate on Bailey South Road. In 1943, it was renamed Zhongshan Park. For example, if you go back to 1864 (the third year of Tongzhi) Zhao Feng Foreign Firm's British grand Ban Qinnu Hogg purchased the land of the Wu family house to build the "Mega Garden", the age of Zhongshan Park should be 157 years old.
The private gardens built by British merchants are naturally In the English style, and Zhongshan Park has undergone many renovations to retain the style of the English garden. The most recent renovation in 2013 restored several of the park's most famous sites in its history. Among them, the open-air music station was built in 1924 by the Ministry of Works to provide a performance venue for its symphony orchestra (the predecessor of the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra).
1974 Zhongshan Park Changning Road Gate (photo from Zhongshan Park)
1984 Zhongshan Park Changning Road Gate (Photo from District Geographical Names Office)
The current Raffles City Changning was built on the site of the Shanghai Textile College, which was formerly known as St. Mary's Girls' High School. In 1881 (the seventh year of Guangxu), Joseph Shi, the founder of St. John's College (the predecessor of East China University of Political Science and Law), merged the wenji and peiwen girls' schools founded by the American Sheng Kung Hui into St. John's College and named it St. Mary's Girls' High School. In the 9th year of the Republic of China (1920), St. Mary's Girls' High School purchased land in Sanjing North on the west side of the Shanghai-Hangzhou Railway to build a new school building, and moved to the new school site in 1923. Zhang Ailing, the great-granddaughter of Li Hongzhang, a famous minister of the late Qing Dynasty, attended this boarding school for six years. In 1952, St. Mary's Girls' High School and The Chinese and Western Girls' High School on Jiangsu Road merged to form Shanghai No. 3 Girls' High School. The premises of St. Mary's Girls' High School were changed to Shanghai Textile Industrial School (formerly No. 1187 Changning Road), which was later renamed Shanghai Textile College. The church of St. Mary's Girls' High School and two rows of teaching buildings were relocated and rebuilt in Raffles City Changning to commemorate them.
Shanghai Textile Industry College, No. 1187 Changning Road, 1986, formerly known as Santa Maria Girls' High School (Photo from District Geographical Names Office)
Before the development of the textile college plot in 2005 (photo from the District Hongqiao Office)
The church and teaching building of St. Mary's Girls' High School were relocated and rebuilt in Raffles City Changning (Photo by Yao Zhikang)
The "three horizontal" construction of Changning Road was reborn
By the early 1990s, the narrow Changning Road was overwhelmed. In 1995, the municipal government's "three vertical and three horizontal" traffic transformation project was launched, and the "north horizontal" of the "three horizontals" was Changning Road - Changshou Road - Tianmu Road - Haining Road - Zhoujiazui Road. Changning Road first started the widening of Jiangsu Road to Zunyi Road; in 1998, combined with the old reconstruction of Zhoujiaqiao area, the widening project of Zunyi Road to Gubei Road (Phase II) was started; in 2002, with the relocation of factories along the Tianyuan Chemical Factory and other lines, the widening project of Gubei Road to Hami Road (Phase III) was started; in 2008, in order to welcome the 2010 Shanghai World Expo, the Suzhou Riverside Greening Project of Changning Road from Gubei Road to Hami Road was launched. At this moment, the eight lanes of Changning Road are connected, becoming the east-west backbone road in the central urban area of Shanghai.
Changning Road outside the south gate of Zhongshan Park (Photo by Yao Zhikang)
Gubei Road Bridge overlooking Changning Road to the east (Photo by Yao Zhikang)
In 2021,
Changning Road is 120 years old.
The factories and old mansion shantytowns along the line have long disappeared,
Instead
Zhongshan Park, Caojiadu two major business districts,
From east to west, all kinds of commercial housing real estate stand side by side.
Changning Road,
The vicissitudes of the sea and the mulberry field, changed the human world!
Text: Yao Zhikang
Edit: Gao Qin
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