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The island time forgot
Source:Global Times Published: 2016-4-18 17:48:01
A look over a unique collection of industrial riverside memories
The one and only island on the Huangpu River is Fuxing Island. In Chinese "fuxing" means renaissance. Here there are no apartment buildings, no coffee shops, not even a convenience store - just old factories and warehouses. The island is a memorial to Shanghai's industrial period. While elsewhere the city advances and new developments replace old ones, time seems to have stopped here and it remains almost exactly as it was decades ago.
The island was nothing but a mudflat at first but, from 1915 to 1925, a dam was built along the east side of the mudflat so that earth would accumulate there. In July 1926, the river authorities of Shanghai moved 8,28 million cubic meters of earth and created a crescent-shaped islet from the mudflat. Then, from 1928 to 1930 more earth was moved to make the island the size and shape it is today. It took 10 years for the island to be completed and spread over its current area of 1.13 square kilometers. It was used by the Japanese army as an arsenal during the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression (1931-45).
The main road on Fuxing Island is Gongqing Road, and moving along this road visitors encounter mainly factories and trees. The Fuxing Island Park in the middle of the island was like the "green pocket" for the old industrial belt. Walking south along Gongqing Road visitors can smell the iron and steel in the air as the old shipyards get closer.
At the south end of the island, the Dinghai Road Bridge connects the island and the mainland on the west. To go to Pudong New Area in the east, people have to take a ferry across the Huangpu River.
Global Times
A drone camera at 400 meters can only catch a corner, showing the size of this man-made island. Photo: Yang Hui/GT
The island was nothing but a mudflat at first but, from 1915 to 1925, a dam was built along the east side of the mudflat so that earth would accumulate there. In July 1926, the river authorities of Shanghai moved 8,28 million cubic meters of earth and created a crescent-shaped islet from the mudflat. Then, from 1928 to 1930 more earth was moved to make the island the size and shape it is today. It took 10 years for the island to be completed and spread over its current area of 1.13 square kilometers. It was used by the Japanese army as an arsenal during the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression (1931-45).
Gongqing Road is the only road that can take motor vehicles on Fuxing Island. Photo: Yang Hui/GT
The main road on Fuxing Island is Gongqing Road, and moving along this road visitors encounter mainly factories and trees. The Fuxing Island Park in the middle of the island was like the "green pocket" for the old industrial belt. Walking south along Gongqing Road visitors can smell the iron and steel in the air as the old shipyards get closer.
A man rides his electric moped past the only supermarket on the island. Photo: Yang Hui/GT
At the south end of the island, the Dinghai Road Bridge connects the island and the mainland on the west. To go to Pudong New Area in the east, people have to take a ferry across the Huangpu River.
Metro line 12 now has a stop on the island. Photo: Yang Hui/GT
A woman buys vegetables from a market on the mainland and then uses the Dinghai Road Bridge to return home on the island. Photo: Yang Hui/GT
As well as the bridge, residents can catch ferries or the metro to get to the mainland. Photo: Yang Hui/GT
Global Times
Posted in: Metro Shanghai, City Panorama