Zhabei District of Shanghai -- A Dream of Its Own

Zhabei District of Shanghai -- A Dream of Its Own

Site of the headquarters of the Shanghai Chamber of Commerce.

    SHANGHAI owes its birth and prosperity to the mighty Yangtze River that enters the sea where the city perches on China's east coast; the emergence and ascendance of its Zhabei District is also bound into river legends and became part of an historic epoch in national industry. Located in the northern part of the city, Zhabei is home to a growing number of iconic landmarks, buildings and neighborhoods. The current big names are the picturesque Suzhou Creek, the imaginative Sihang Warehouse art zone, the chic Daning International Square, the intriguing Circus City, the booming Shibei Hi-tech Park, and stately Oriental Global Headquarters.

A Rising Legend

    Looking at a map of Shanghai, Zhabei is like a scroll painting that unfolds upwards from the northern bank of the Suzhou Creek; it looks across the river to China's Number One Commercial Street – Nanjing Road.

    There is a quite complicated story behind the naming of the district. In the 14th year of Emperor Kangxi's reign (1675), a floodgate was built on the Wusong River near present-day Fujian Road Bridge. It was known as Laozha, or Old Floodgate. In the 13th year of Emperor Yongzheng's reign (1735), another one was erected at Jinjiawan (today's Xinzha Road Bridge) 1,500 meters west of Laozha; it was named Xinzha, or New Floodgate. By the time of Emperor Jiaqing – Yongzheng's grandson and Kangxi's great grandson, shipping and local trade flourished on the Wusong River, and two market towns formed around Laozha and Xinzha. They served as logistics bases for the boats and merchants that plied the Wusong River. Lying beyond the towns on the northern bank of the river were vast expanses of farm fields and wasteland. Industrial and modern development gripped the rural northern bank after Shanghai was opened as a treaty port and the geographic references to Zhabei – North Bank of the Floodgates – became familiar to more and more people.

    However, it was not until the early 20th century when the Zhabei Engineering Bureau was founded that a new name for the region within these boundaries was formalized. In the late 19th century, American and British concessions in Shanghai extended their domains several times. To stop them sprawling westwards and northwards and nibbling at the vast North Bank, local businessmen and landlords joined hands to establish the Zhabei Engineering Bureau. Immediately, it started to build roads, bridges and commercial facilities on the North Bank, and this episode is recorded by Chinese historians as the Zhabei Autonomous Campaign. For a time, the name of Zhabei flooded local newspapers and magazines, and the new geographic entity became a role model for other areas of Shanghai.

    Unfortunately, not long after it embarked on its road to prosperity, Zhabei was torn to pieces by invaders' guns and cannons. In the First Songhu Battle in early 1932 Zhabei's newly built landmark, the Commercial Press headquarters, was leveled by Japanese firepower. Throughout the first three months following the Second Songhu Battle in August 1937, the Japanese invaders carried out a vindictive arson policy in Zhabei, burning down 95 percent of its buildings, dislocating hundreds of thousands of local residents, and almost completely wiping out its industrial and commercial establishments and facilities.

    After New China was founded, Zhabei rose quickly from its ashes, becoming a mechanical industry belt of Shanghai. It is the birthplace of China's first large antenna pedestal, first bulldozer, first electronic-controlled pneumatic cold rolling mill, first industrial water-tube boiler, and first nuclear power plant.

    Since the beginning of the 21st century, Zhabei has embarked on a new round of modernization. It has been designated a national pilot zone for comprehensive reform of the service industry and a municipal human resources service industry park and computer industry base.

Mother River

    Many metropolises around the world have a mother river; the Seine of Paris, the Thames of London, the Saint Lawrence of Montreal and the Hudson of New York are among the most famous. Shanghai's Suzhou Creek is like a silver ribbon threading through the downtown. It curves gently and beautifully between Wuzhen Road and Zhejiang North Road in Zhabei, forming the 4.7-kilometer-long Suzhou Creek Bend on the northern bank. This golden section of the river bank was the origin of China's national industry and characteristic Shanghai Culture of the early 20th century.

    Traces of the modern Shanghai that was emerging in the first few decades of the 20th century can still be seen around Suzhou Creek Bend today. A Chinese-Western building that stands on Zhejiang North Road was the first Western-style yamen (the office and residence of the local imperial administrator) that the Chinese government set up in a foreign concession. The Youyicun, a garden within Xuyuan Garden on Tiantong Road, was China's first cinema. The Shanxi Theater, built in the Russian style on Shanxi North Road, reflects an early modernization effort of traditional Chinese theater. In the Shikumen neighborhood, there are still many old residences from the early 20th century that were built in mixed Chinese and Western architectural styles.

    The Suzhou Creek Bend also accommodated the New Culture departure of Shanghai intellectuals and scholars. The Commercial Press on Baoshan Road was the pioneer and leader of China's modern printing and publication industry and an important base of the New Culture Movement. By 1932, it had published more than 8,000 titles, the largest of any publishing house around the country and operated the Oriental Library, then the largest in Asia. Around that time, there were more than 20 newspapers and magazines and over 10 filmmakers and producers based on Baoshan Road or in surrounding neighborhoods.

    The theme of ''Better City, Better Life'' proposed in 2002 for the Shanghai World Expo inspired in the Zhabei people a renewed appreciation of the immense value of their historic legacy on the banks of Suzhou Creek Bend; its old buildings, 100-year-old storehouses and docks, and other cultural relics are ''cultural chip'' of a cosmopolis. Minds were stirred and motivated to work on the restoration of the old river area to keep alive its old romance and enhance it with youthful charms.

    Forty-five days after the World Expo, a long-awaited and extensive urban construction plan for the Suzhou Creek Bend was released. The ambitious blueprint encompasses three strategies, three ''seeds of hope,'' two horizontal ecological axes, and a vertical temporal axis. The three strategies pivot on the power of ''landmark engines,'' low carbon and environmental conservation, and historical and cultural protection. Two projects, the Suzhou Creek Bend Block No. 1 – a mixed commercial, cultural, residential and business community – and the Joy City commercial and entertainment center, have been launched as the ''landmark engines'' to propel the whole project. The construction of three ''seeds of hope'' projects – Joy Square, Business Park and Suzhou Creek Gateway Park – will soon be launched to back them up. The two horizontal axes straddle the 4.7-kilometer river banks; one is an ecological corridor dotted by scenic spots, recreational terraces and cruiser docks. The other is a green boulevard strung along the Zhebei Lawn, Joy Square, Jinyuan Business Park and several other public facilities. The temporal axis will link the past, present and future of the Suzhou Creek Bend into a symphony of historical and cultural import: traditional ''water town'' civilization marked by docks and storehouses, commemoratives of national heroism against the Japanese invaders, and modern urban culture. In short, the new Suzhou Creek Bend community will be an exemplary case for sensitive and progressive urban development.

    Zhou Ping, head of Zhabei District, assures this reporter that the design of the Suzhou Creek Bend must be in synch with the rhythm of the municipal government's pre-existing ''four centers'' plan for the cultivation of Shanghai into a cosmopolis. At the same time, Suzhou Creek Bend will maintain its distinction from the rest of traditional Shanghai in order to stand its ground as the Suzhou Creek Bend, not another Bund. ''The new Suzhou Creek Bend strives for fame on a par with that of old Shanghai's landmarks, so people around the world will come and take a look,'' says Mr. Zhou.

Rosy Clouds over the Hi-tech Park

    The Central Ring Road is one of four express traffic loops (Inner, Central, Outer and Suburban) of Shanghai. The Shibei Hi-tech and Service Industry Park hangs like a pendant from the Zhabei section of the ring.

    No matter what one expects from its name, astonishment is the common reaction. Its beautiful environment features a large music fountain square, an indoor tropical rainforest, the Zhongyang Lake where elegant white and black swans and mandarin ducks glide, and the Monet Lake strewn with water lilies. The Peninsula Business Center, an imposing edifice of more than 10,000 square meters, perches against this picturesque setting. Clustered around it are other service facilities and offices for the zone’s clients.

    Ten years ago, the Shibei Hi-techPark was a shabby, backward industrial area built in 1992 to house polluting industries shunned by inner city residents. Alloy factories predominated, whose workers ''went in white and came out grey.'' As administrative and maintenance costs rose, running an industrial park in the central area just to accommodate conventional production lines became an unreasonable waste of resources. A new round of abandonment and upgrading became inevitable.

    In 2003, the Shibei Park proposed to develop a ''2.5 industry,'' an expression and idea borrowed in reference to the secondary and tertiary industries which meant to develop R&D and production centers for core technologies and productive service industries – trade, financial clearing and consultancy services for manufacturers for instance. In the following years, the park saw the arrival of many hi-tech and service enterprises, such as Kohler (China) Investment, Huanda Computer Technology and Jing'ao Solar Energy. It gradually shifted from conventional industries into information technology, service outsourcing and modern logistics. The park came into favor as a location for regional industrial headquarters.

    In 2008, it shed its label as a ''home of traditional industries'' and became a part of the Zhangjiang National High and New-Technology Industry Development Zone. It was also made China’s first high-tech intensive manufacturing base and Shanghai's first productive service industry zone.

    However, the Shibei Park was not content, aware that in a competitive market it must ride the surging tide of an economy or be toppled by it. In August 2010, the park hung out a newly prestigious ''Cloud Computing Industry Base'' shingle, announcing its ambition to be an ''intelligent CBD'' (central business district). According to the municipal Cloud Plan, in the next few years the Shibei Park will see the ascendance of 10 Cloud computing projects that have amassed a total investment of RMB 3 billion. They will service public health, education, administration, transportation, industry, financing, culture, science and technology, power supply, and small and medium-sized enterprises.