In 1862, the General Racing Club of the then British Concession built a road to cross its borders through the now Xizang Road Middle and extending west to the old Jing'an Temple. The British built the road to help the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) government battle the Taiping Army, which was trying to overthrow the dynasty government. With this road built, army reinforcements could be moved swiftly to the west of the city.

The 3.2-kilometer road was called Bubbling Well Road, after the well in front of the temple. It was also known as Jing'ansi Road. Vehicles and horses that used the road had to pay a toll to the racing club, which managed the road in those days. That bustling road still thrives today in downtown Shanghai, where it is known as Nanjing Road West. 

In 1866, the municipal council of the concession took over the management of the road and laid sewage and water pipes and drains. In 1890, the road was paved with cobblestones, and plane trees were planted on each side.

In 1899, it was assigned to the International Concession and it was extended to the current Yan'an Road West in 1921. It was named Nanjing Road West in 1945.

Moving a temple

The most famous building on this road is probably Jing'an Temple, one of the major temples in the city. The temple is said to have been originally constructed on the north bank of the Wusong River in 247 during the Three Kingdoms (220-280) period. It was moved to its current location in 1216 in the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279) after it was discovered that the flowing river was destroying its foundations.

In the 1880s the area around the temple was considered part of the city's countryside and people living in the concessions would have outings there. When there were festivals at the temple the roads were cluttered with women pushing handcarts. During the Cultural Revolution (1966-76) the monks were sent away and the temple became a plastics factory.

After World War I Shanghai experienced rapid development, and new residential compounds sprang up around the temple - homes for many of the new upper-class residents of the city. This saw the streets grow to become a major area of population and entertainment.

Further to the east along the road stands the Park Hotel, another piece of history. Originally the Shanghai Joint Savings Society Building, it was the tallest building in Asia and a landmark for the rich and famous. For more than half a century, the 83.8-meter building remained the tallest in the city.

It was designed by the acclaimed Hungarian architect Lászlo Hudec who also designed many other noteworthy buildings in the city, including the neighboring Grand Theater. The art deco style hotel opened in 1934 and attracted celebrities from all over the world including the writer Eileen Chang, Soong Ching Ling, the wife of revolutionary leader Sun Yat-sen, and the American military leader, Lieutenant General Claire Lee Chennault.

It has been reported that the famous Chinese American architect Ieoh Ming Pei saw the building when he was studying at Saint John's University in Shanghai in 1933 and this inspired him to leave for the US to study architecture without graduating from Saint John's.

In 1950, the Park Hotel was officially designated as the center of the city. The hotel's interiors had been often redesigned and reworked, but in 1997 the American designer George Grigorian helped renovate the interior of the hotel in the original art deco style. And in 2001, Christopher Choa recreated the stunning art deco lobby. Now it is a four-star hotel in the Jinjiang Hotels Group.

Another classic building on the road is the China Welfare Institute Children's Palace set between Nanjing Road West and Yan'an Road West. It was once the residence of the British Jewish businessman Sir Ellis Kadoorie. Kadoorie ran companies in Hong Kong and Shanghai and was a noted philanthropist, helping found the Shanghai Yucai High School.

Tragic accident

This elegant and impressive structure came about through a tragic accident. In 1919, Kadoorie's then home caught on fire and though his wife helped save the life of a nursemaid, she was trapped by the blaze and died. Grief-stricken Kadoorie took his two sons to London to recover and entrusted the building of a new home to a friend. But the friend was a heavy drinker and left the design and construction of the home to the builder who created this extravagant mansion. It took four years to build and cost a fortune - it has been estimated that the cost of the house could have paid for the annual food bills for 140,000 people back then.

The palatial residence was paved with Italian marble throughout and is sometimes called the Great Marble House. It is set on 14,000 square meters and in the old days needed 30 maids to keep it clean and polished.

When the Japanese invaded, Kadoorie was arrested and the Japanese army took over his house. He died in 1944 before he could see the city liberated. In 1953 on Children's Day, after getting permission from his family, Soong Ching Ling opened the home as China's first children's palace.

The historic buildings and sights along the road are impressive but sometimes they cannot hold a candle to those that have vanished. Near the corner of Nanjing Road West and Taixing Road used to be Zhang's Garden, one of the most lavish and showy attractions in old Shanghai. It was originally a garden owned by a British businessman, and was bought by a man called Zhang Shuhe in 1882. Zhang rearranged the garden into a Western setting, and established teahouses and stages. Although a private property, it opened to the public.

Stunning view

The ornate Arcadia Hall was added to the garden in 1982 and the place became an important entertainment venue for the city with tourists and locals spending time there and climbing to the top of Arcadia Hall to enjoy what was then a stunning view of the city. It was the largest private garden in Shanghai in the late Qing Dynasty and in the early years of the Republic of China (1912-49) - spreading over 4 hectares.

Entrance to the garden was free when it opened in 1885 but its popularity meant that it soon began charging admission. The garden featured restaurants and saw all sorts of entertainments, including magic shows and circuses - the kung fu master Huo Yuanjia fought with foreign martial arts experts there. The garden also introduced Shanghainese to modern devices like the electric light, cameras, moving pictures and hot air balloons.

But the popularity of Zhang's Garden began to wane when other attractions like Hardoon's Garden, and the Great World entertainment complexes opened, and the garden, the scene of the beginning of modern entertainment in China, closed its doors in 1919.

It was not solely an entertainment venue, however. Because of its location in the International Concession, it saw a variety of political meetings, important conventions and radical speeches and the Qing government could not interfere or control this. In 1903, thousands of people gathered there to protest against Russian aggression in Northeast China.

Hardoon's Garden was another major attraction of the day. It was built in 1910 on land belonging to the British Jewish businessman S.A Hardoon. Hardoon was a board member on the International Concession's council and knew beforehand of the plans to develop the area so he purchased land from the Chinese at bargain prices to become, by the 1930s, one of the biggest real estate tycoons on Nanjing Road.

Hardoon's Garden was the largest private garden of the day - it featured a man-made mountain, a lake, a traditional pavilion, and flowers and trees spread over a 20-hectare site. During the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression (1937-45), the Japanese army occupied the property.

The "wedding cake building," the Shanghai Exhibition Center, formerly the Sino-Soviet Friendship Mansion, was built in 1955 on the ruins of Hardoon's Garden. It was the first exhibition and convention venue in Shanghai after liberation, and currently hosts many political and cultural events. The building was designed by Sergei Andreyev, an architect from the former Soviet Union.

Love and more

Many famous people have lived along Nanjing Road West. The writer Eileen Chang lived at Eddington House (the Changde Apartments at 195 Changde Road) from 1942 to 1947 before she moved away after her divorce. Changde Apartments was the place where she and her first husband Hu Lancheng met, fell in love, lost touch and finally broke up. It has been reported that the first time Hu asked to see Chang, she refused to open the door, so Hu slipped a note under the door to persuade her to see him.

Her novels of Shanghai in the 1940s were colored by her experiences of life on Nanjing Road. There remain links there to her most famous novel, Lust, Caution, which was filmed by Ang Lee. Based on a real-life story about an attractive young Kuomintang agent who tries to arrange the assassination of a pro-Japanese traitor working for the Wang Jingwei puppet administration in 1939, a key scene sees him being lured into a leather clothing store but the assassination attempt there fails. That store is still there on Nanjing Road West, near the Nanjing Road West subway station.

Much of the romance and tragedy of the past has been buried. The road has been renovated, modified and revamped many times. It has seen the trading of China's first stock, 500,000 yuan ($80,433) worth of shares of the Shanghai Feilo Acoustics Company issued in November 1984, and many luxury stores, five-star hotels, and commercial developments constructed. Constantly changing its appearance if not its shape, the road that connects Xujiahui and the Bund, is still in its glory days.