East-1 Zhongshan Road

East-1 Zhongshan Road is located in The Bund which is the symbol of Shanghai. This road, with 1108 meters and 10 lanes, begins from The Garden Bridge and ends to East Yan’an Road, and faces the Huangpu River, in the east of Huangpu District. In the last more than 100 years, this road has been playing an important role in Shanghai but in different ways. This evolution is imprinted the great changes taking place in Shanghai.

History

After First Opium War, British troops have captured Shanghai. On 17th Nov 1843, Shanghai was opened to British merchants as a port. The British settlers built this road in the Bund and named it Yangtze Road afterYangtze River. Then, more merchants from other countries came to Shanghai and made Shanghai an international port. After the Bund becoming an international settlement, the name of Yangtze Road turned to Huangputan Road. This name lasted until 1945 when the Chinese government changed it to East-1 Zhongshan Road named after Sun Yet-sen. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, a series of floods called for a tall levee along the riverfront, which resulted in the embankment standing about 10 meters higher than street. Later, in 1994, the road was widened to 10 lanes, which means most of the green lands along the road disappeared. Also, the ferry wharves connecting the western and the eastern of Shanghai were removed, and the levee was renovated as a sightseeing riverbank for tourism.

Comparison between Yesterday and Today

Yesterday: Both the British settlers and French settlers built this road in a European way. However, the European way also evaluated during the period of time of settlement. First, when the rickshaw was the most popular means of transportation, the British settlers planted trees along the road and built a street corner greenbelt near the cross of this road and the Garden Bridge, which was the first park in Shanghai. Then, after cars becoming more and more popular, the parking space was laid in the middle to separate the opposite lanes from each other, and pieces of green land between the road and the ferry wharves appeared.

Today: This road is totally different from that in the times of settlement in the aspects below. First, the road itself has been widened to 10 lanes only for motor vehicles but without the parking space in the middle. Second, there is a tall levee between the road and the river, which blocked the sight from the road to see the view of river. Third, the tall levee has been renovated to large flat only for walking persons and mainly for tourists since the Bund became the most important scenic site in Shanghai. Under this sightseeing flat, there are shops, restaurants and parking space. In the view of urban design, the most important change of this road is from combined flow of vehicles and pedestrians to vehicle diversion. As a result, the behavior in the riverfront has differed. Originally, people walked on this road with the purpose of passage, but now people go to the flat mainly for sightseeing, while the other people who want to pass the road quickly walk along the narrow sidewalk under the flat of levee.

Context of change

First, since Shanghai is one of the most important cities in China, the flood prevention standards should match the perception through millennium. However, unfortunately, the pollution of Yangtze River Region leads to more and more serious flood, which threaten Shanghai. In 1981, the average water level arrived at 5.22m, and even higher at 5.72m in 1998, also more than 5m in 2000. Therefore, Shanghai certainly needs a tall levee at the riverfront.

Second, with the population of more than 19 million, there are more than 1 million motor vehicles. Furthermore, not only the East-1 Zhongshan Road is an important scenic spot, but also a main road for traffic. Therefore, this road should be widened to 10 lanes to meet the need of traffic load.

Third, in 1990s, the government of Shanghai began to pay more attention on tourism and consider it as a new point of economic growth. The Bund imprinted the most complex historic meaning and with the typical buildings in good preservation undoubtedly becomes the most popular place for tourists. To promoting tourism, the government changed the land use and renovated the levee to satisfied tourists.

As a conclusion, because of the specific context in Shanghai, the East-1 Zhongshan Road firstly built by British settlers is unable to keep the original appearance but due to turn out like this.

References

[1] Zhenhe Zhou, Collection of Historical Maps of Shanghai, Shanghai People Press, 1999

[2] Zonghao, Qian, Review 100 Years of Shanghai, Shanghai Science and Technology Publishing House, 2005