Huangpu Park (Shanghai)

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Huangpu Park is the triangular stretch of green at the northern end of the Bund in Shanghai, the oldest and smallest park in the city. It is the site of the Monument to the People's Heroes and the Bund Historical Museum.

The first park at this location was established in 1886 as Public Garden, the first park in China to open to the public. Designed by a Scottish gardener in European style, it included a resting pavilion and a tennis court, aiming at the inspiring number of foreigners living in Shanghai ever since the city became an international trade port in the 1840s.

The Public Garden was closed to Chinese people between 1890 an 1928, and according to a popular myth, a sign at the park's gate read "No dogs and Chinese allowed". However, no such sign existed and the regulations instead stated "The Gardens are reserved for the foreign community", and further down: "No dogs and bicycles are admitted". In any case, the banning of Chinese from Huangpu Park and other parks in China has remained in chinese public mind as one of the many moments of humiliation by the Western powers in the 19th and early 20th Century.

After World War II, Public Garden was renamed Huangpu Park. Confined by Suzhou Creek to the north and Huangpu River to the east, the park bears the name of the latter, larger river.

The park was remodeled in the 1990s with the addition of the Monument to the People's Heroes and the Bund Historical Museum.

While the place looks very different today, the historical name of Huangpu Park lives on in the names of placed in the neighbourhood like Garden Bridge and the New Bund Garden.
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Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huangpu_Park
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Coordinates:  31°14'36"N 121°29'11"E

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This article was last modified 5 years ago