Greater Shanghai Plan


The Greater Shanghai Plan was a 1927 plan for the city of Shanghai, China, drawn up by the Nationalist Government of the Republic of China in Nanjing. It was presented at the 123rd meeting of the Shanghai City Government in July 1929 and as one of its provisions allocated 7,000mu in the modern day Jiangwan Subdistrict of Shanghai's Yangpu District for the construction of a government headquarters and administration centre. Had it been completed, the government headquarters building would have stood close to the junction of today's Hengren Road and the Qingyuan Ring Road .
Following the Battle of Shanghai in 1937, implementation of the plan stopped. By October 1938, the Empire of Japan had come up with their own "Greater Shanghai Metropolitan Plan", which was a modified version of the original. When the Second Sino-Japanese War ended in 1945 with the Japanese surrender, the Nationalist Government returned to power. It did not continue with the plan but instead constructed a number of new roads and repaired damaged buildings. From then until 1952, land previously allocated under the plan was gradually subsumed by development of the Jiangwan District.

Background

After China was defeated by Great Britain in the First Opium War, Shanghai was among the five treaty ports for the Western powers under the unequal treaties. Shanghai's central areas near the Huangpu River developed into a commercial hub. The foreign concessions were governed by municipal bodies established by the Anglo-Americans and France, Russia, and Japan. Around the colonial core of the city, the Chinese controlled areas also expanded and drew internal migration from elsewhere in China. Urban governance in this period was inconsistent and there was almost no city planning.
Sun Yat-sen's 1924 Outline of the Foundation of the Nationalist State aimed to reclaim control of transportation and trade from foreign entities.
In July 1927, the Nationalist Government headquartered in Nanjing under Chiang Kai-shek established the Shanghai Special City Government. The Nationalist government viewed Shanghai as a special city and sought to establish an exemplary municipal government, which it hoped would help it unify the city under Chinese administration. The city remained remarkably prosperous despite tripartite struggles between Nationalist, Communist and warlord factions in various parts of China, largely on the account of the International Settlement and the French Concession. The Nationalist-controlled Chinese walled city in the Nanshi area and the northern Zhabei District were small in comparison to the areas under foreign administration, held a burgeoning population and were unsuitable for expansion. As a result, the Nanjing Government considered large scale redevelopment a key task and in July 1929 decided to proceed with the acquisition of land northeast of the city adjacent to the Huangpu River. In 1922, this area had also been earmarked by Sun Yat-sen, founder of the Chinese Republic, as the center of China's development plans with a view to Shanghai becoming a global commercial centre. By 1931, the new Shanghai Special City Government had approved and started work on the Greater Shanghai Plan, utilising ideas drawn from British expert Ebenezer Howard's 1902 book Garden Cities of To-morrow. The grid layout also followed contemporary trends in European and American urban planning.

Plan detail

The development plan focused on creating a new urban center in the Jiangwan area, which had mostly flat land that could be developed at low cost and where it was hoped that a new urban center could rival the foreign-controlled urban core of Shanghai. The plan sought to avoid the foreign-controlled areas while being strategically placed between the train station in Zhabei District and the proposed new port in Wusong.
The major elements of the plan were divided into four sections:
  • City center plan: The Civic Center district was planned as the center of development and was the initial phase. Comprising 1,000mu and shaped like the stylized Chinese character zhong meaning "centre", this area would contain government buildings each with its own exercise area. The plan included the public structures of a city hall, administrative complex, library, conservatory, hospital, and sports complex.
  • A railway line connecting the city centre with a port on the Huangpu River and a railway line with goods depot near modern-day Qiujiang Road.
  • Division of the city into zones with the central area surrounded by industrial and residential areas.
  • Traffic system:

    Implementation

Funding

Once implementation of the plan began, the Nationalist Government issued bonds to cover the necessary construction funds. In 1929 they floated the First Phase Municipal Bond to raise 3,000,000 Chinese yuan based on marketable land values of between 200 and 600 yuan per Chinese acre. A land tax was further levied on the 5,400 mu that made up the proposed city centre area. Outside of this area, a surplus 829 mu of land was divided into two grades and sold for 2,500 yuan and 2,000 yuan per mu respectively, generating a profit of 1,795,560 yuan.

New city hall

The 1,000 mu site earmarked for the new Shanghai City Hall lay at the centre of the planned city. On 1October 1929 a design competition for the new building was launched with a prize of 3,000 yuan. The government announced architect Dong Dayou as the winner in February 1930 while further amendments were made to the overall plan. Work officially began on the site in June 1931 and was scheduled for completion the following year. However, Chinese nationalist forces clashed with the Japanese army in the January 28 Incident as Shanghai came under attack and the area between the Wujiaochang District and the Huangpu River, at the heart of the construction project, became a battlefield. Work ceased until the announcement of a ceasefire in March 1932 then in July the project restarted and was formally completed on 10October. Five other buildings were completed at the same time representing a total development area of at a cost of 780,000 yuan. The new complex opened at the end of the year.

Other facilities

Work on a 300 mu sports field began in August 1934 at the same time as a stadium and a swimming pool nearby. At the end of the same year, construction started on the Shanghai Municipal Library and the Shanghai Municipal Museum, both designed by Dong Dayou.

Interruption of development

Ultimately, the Greater Shanghai Plan was interrupted by Second Sino-Japanese War and then ended after the defeat of the Nationalist Government in the Chinese Civil War. Jiangwan remained a peripheral area until the 21st century.

Legacy

The Greater Shanghai Plan is frequently described as a precursor to subsequent new town plans endeavors in China, such as Shanghai's 2001 One City, Nine Towns initiative.

Notable buildings

  • Shanghai Nationalist Government Building
  • Shanghai Municipal Stadium
  • Shanghai Municipal Library
  • Shanghai Municipal Museum
  • Shanghai Municipal Hospital and Health Institute