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Waves of refugees created vast factory slums
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Thirty-five-year-old Lin Jian was born in Pan Jia Wan, or Pan’s Bay, on the Suzhou River in Putuo District. It is one of the famous slums known to locals as the san wan yi nong (three bays and one lane 三湾一弄) — Tan Zi Wan, Pan Jia Wan, Zhu Jia Wan bay and Yaoshui Lane.
In the late 1990s, the first two bays were demolished and residents including Lin and his parents were relocated. Lin’s father made some money from trade a few years later, when the two bays were developed and apartment buildings were constructed. The family bought a two-bedroom apartment and moved back to the area.
“When I was little, people used to say you would rather be in prison than live in this area. Many relatives and old neighbors from that area thought we were mad. Nobody wanted to go back, even though it was no longer a slum,” Lin recalls. “And back then, nobody knew the housing prices in the city would rocket like this.”
Two years later, more apartments were built. The Lins moved out again, bought two more apartments and rented out all three. Today, the average price in the area is about 35,000 yuan (US$5,740) per square meter.
“After Shanghai opened its port in 1843, the city developed quickly with incoming foreign capital and advanced technologies from the West, so poor peasants from nearby areas flooded into the city to work as rickshaw boys and in factories,” says Lu Qiguo, a historian from Shanghai Municipal Archives.
They couldn’t afford the rent, so they often built hovels and gathered along the Huangpu River and Suzhou Creek, and later along railways and near factories.
Many men worked in mechanical factories and women in textile mills. Famous slums arose.
In these places, a family of five would squeeze in a room of less than 10 square meters and only about one meter high. There was no kitchen or toilet, sometimes not even a table or chair. Residents often quarrelled or fought about expanding and rebuilding their houses and encroaching on public space. Property lines were not clear.
Eliminating slums and providing better housing have been major city goals since the 1920s, but resettling refugees was difficult since they kept coming in waves during the Taiping Rebellion (1850-64) and the Japanese invasion in the 1930s.
Yangshupu Road was another famous slum, where the residents were mainly factory workers. Since the 19th century, it was filled with factories, including the city’s water works, gas works and electric power station. Many were started or invested by foreign merchants.
In the past three to five years, most factories have been relocated or closed and modern art studios have been built in their place.
Starting in the 1980s, most of the famous slums have been demolished and their residents relocated. Hongzhen Old Street section in Hongkou District is the last remaining large slum downtown. The demolition is underway and most of its residents will leave in a few months.
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