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On Nanjing Road Trail
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SINCE I began writing this column on Nanjing Road last year, it has been undergoing a new round of urban regeneration. I’ve seen private toilets added to apartments in the century-old Ci’anli Building, three 1930s department stores renovated and the 1980s East China Electrical Power Building converted into a boutique hotel.
But none of those is more exciting to me than the opening of Shanghai History Museum built in the former clubhouse of Shanghai racecourse, which had shaped Nanjing Road and had a profound effect on the city’s urban development.
Nanjing Road was constructed in 1851 as Park Lane — from the Bund to the first racecourse on today’s Henan Road. It was widely called Ta Maloo which translates as “Great Horse Road.” The Maloo was extended to Zhejiang Road in 1854 and stretched further to Xizang Road in 1862 as the racecourse was relocated twice to its final place at today’s People’s Square.
The almost 1-square-kilometer grounds had been the former social center for Shanghai’s foreign population. After decades of regeneration, a congregation of racecourse buildings came into being.
In 1951, the racecourse and its neighborhood became today’s People’s Square, People’s Avenue and People’s Park, an area transformed into a political, cultural and entertainment center of the city-- “the heart of Shanghai.” The former shape of the racecourse is still maintained but a rainbow of new structures were built around it.
Park Lane was renamed Nanjing Road, and in 1945 the local government renamed the former Bubbling Well Road starting from the former racecourse to Nanjing Road W. — and the other end became Nanjing Road E. The entire stretch came to be known as Nanjing Road, stretching 5 kilometers.
Early Shanghai expatriates said if the Bund was like a bow, then Nanjing Road was the arrow, flying westward, which has been the direction that has guided Shanghai’s urban development.
After exploring the bow-shaped Bund, I walked westward along the 19th-century Nanjing Road E. that is undergoing a 21st-century regeneration.
With the grand opening of Shanghai History Museum, I decided to circle around the former racecourse before going further west along Nanjing Road.
Let’s follow the arrow of Shanghai and explore the heart of the city this spring!
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