Changing street names
(SHI HUA)
10/18/2002
The names of Shanghai's streets bear all the traces of the city's - and the country's - history. Many streets in the old Chinese city have retained the names that existed for several centuries. Outside the walled city, foreigners secured their concessions and themselves named the roads they paved out of the marshy land. After the city wall was pulled down with the demise of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), the ring road was renamed Ming Koo Road and Chung Wha Road. After Liberation, Ming Koo Road was renamed Renmin Lu or People's Road (Ming Koo means "republic", as in "Republic of China"). In the former British Concession, streets that ran west to east near the Bund were given the names of Chinese cities. Among the north-south roads named after provinces were Tibet, Yunnan and Chekiang roads. Many of the other streets, such as Hart, Hardoon and Carter roads were named after British historical figures in Shanghai. Park Lane, formerly a side road connecting the Race Course to the Bund, was renamed Nanking Road after the city of Nanking (Nanjing) where "the first unequal treaty with an imperialist power" was signed. Hankow, Foochow, Kiukiang, Canton and Tientsin roads were named after the treaty ports the British forced the Qing Court to open to them. Unlike the British, the French named their thoroughfares mostly after French dignitaries. Some, like Boulevard de Montigny, were named after French consuls and ambassadors to China. Some were named after prominent French citizens in Shanghai, such as Pichon, Chapsal or the wine merchant Remi, or after priests who worked in the Catholic cathedral at Siccawei (Xujiahui). Others were named after famous French military or literary figures such as Joffre, Corneille and Moliere. In 1914, the British and French filled in the Yang-jing-pang River, the demarcation of the two concessions. A heated debate ensued as to what the new thoroughfare should be called. Eventually the street was named Avenue Edward VII after the Francophile English king of that name. In the foreign concessions, only two streets were named after Chinese figures. One was Rue Chu Pao San (now Xikou Lu), named after the businessman and philanthropist from Zhejiang Province who lived from 1848 to 1926. The other was Yu Ya Ching Road (now Xizang Zhonglu), named in 1936 after a leading figure (1867-1944) also from Zhejiang who was a member of the Shanghai Municipal Council. The foreign names have all been scrapped but the Chinese place name streets have been retained. Avenue Joffre, the longest road in the French Concession, was renamed Huaihai Lu after the Battle of Huaihai. This was one of the four most important battles between the Communists and the Kuomintang. Avenue Edward VII was renamed Yan'an Donglu after the revolutionary base of Mao's Red Army in northern Shaanxi Province. Canton Road should have been renamed Guangzhou Lu, but was mistakenly given the name Guangdong Lu after the province rather than the city. The Bund, the premier street in the city, gets its name from the Hindustani "bund", meaning embankment - reflecting Shanghai's position in the global British imperial network. The word Bund is still often used today, but the official name of the causeway is Zhongshan Dong Yi Lu (Sun Yat-sen East First Road).
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