page_title: Old City (Shanghai)
section_title: Today
hierarchical_section_title: Old City (Shanghai) / Today
caption_attribution_description: English: Built in 1855, the Huxinting Teahouse at the Yu Garden pond remains in use in 2018
context_page_description: The Old City of Shanghai, also formerly known as the Chinese city, is the traditional urban core of Shanghai. Its boundary was formerly defined by a defensive wall. The Old City was the county seat for the old county of Shanghai. With the advent of foreign concessions in Shanghai, the Old City became just one part of Shanghai's urban core but continued for decades to be the seat of the Chinese authority in Shanghai. Notable features include the City God Temple which is located in the center of the Old City and is connected to the Yuyuan Garden. With the exception of two short sections, the walls were demolished in 1912, and a broad circular avenue built over the former wall and moat: the southern half was named the "Zhonghua Road" and the northern half the "Minguo Road".
  The Old City was for decades essentially coterminous with the old Nanshi District, which is now part of Huangpu District.
context_section_description: Today the Old City contains some ancient but renovated features, such as the Yuyuan Garden complex first created in the 1500s during the Ming Dynasty, the pedestrian streets of the commercial area around the garden and the City God Temple. (Materials for tourists often refer to it as the Nanshi District although the area is now in the Huangpu District.)
  The Former French Concession (in the Xuhui District) has been extensively renovated and now features upscale shops, restaurants and museums.
  The old city's circular shape is now imprinted by the surrounded large streets which occupy the space of the former walls, now Renmin Road to the North and Zhonghua Road to the South. The Old City has also been cut in the middle North to South by Henan Road. The Old City is a combination of ancient winding streets, with some modern high-rise buildings progressively encroaching on the older areas.
  In 2006, the Shanghai municipal government enacted the Protection Plan for the Old City Historical Cultural Scenery Area. Under the plan, the entirety of the Old City is protected as a Historical cultural Scenery Area. 34 streets, including Dajing Road and West Fangbang Road are specifically protected as "scenery protected laneways".
  However, in the same period, large scale demolition of the Old City is continuing. The Garden of the Fragrance of Dew area (the "Middle Fangbang Road-Dajing Road" protected area), almost the entire north-west quadrant of the Old City, was demolished starting from 2002. Part of the site has been redeveloped into a high rise hotel and residential building and multi-storey buildings, drastically changing the streetscape, while the remainder of the site is intended to be a low-rise residential area. The development has also roused controversy as it involved the demolition of a significant section of surviving city wall, as well as the destruction of several houses of historical significance.
caption: Built in 1855, the Huxinting Teahouse at the Yu Garden pond remains in use in 2018
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