Urban planning of Shanghai
Open-knowledge reference entry
The urban planning of Shanghai refers to various phases of planning and development of Shanghai, presently the largest city in China and one of the largest in the world. The topic is the focus of the city's Urban Planning Museum, located in People's Square beside City Hall.
History
Medieval & Early Modern Shanghai
Shanghai began as a fishing village at the confluence of the Wusong and Huangpu Rivers during the early medieval period. Under the Yuan, the Songjiang native Huang Daopo introduced new strains of cotton and improved techniques for working and dyeing it, improving the area's economic conditions just as the upper reaches of the Wusong River were thoroughly silting up, creating the modern Suzhou Creek and shifting commerce to the Huangpu. Under the Ming, Shanghai was raised in status from a town to a new county seat. A massive city wall was erected and the city's many canals were used to create a wide moat around it.
Even after the city's promotion in status and the establishment of one of the country's few official international ports, however, it was allowed to develop fairly organically. Streets generally ran north to south and east to west, but the city's canals were far more important as means of transport. No effort was made to bring the town into compatibility with traditional Chinese urban planning as codified in the Rites of Zhou's Kaogongji.
Colonial Shanghai
The United Kingdom took and plundered Shanghai in 1842 during the last phase of the First Opium War.
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