Huangpu Park
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Huangpu Park is the name of the triangular stretch of green at the northern end of the Bund in Shanghai, the oldest and smallest park of the city. It is the site of the high-rising Monument to the People's Heroes, commemorating those who helped to free China from foreign occupation, and the Bund Historical Museum, showing the history of the Bund in old photographs.
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[edit] Name and history
The first park at this location was established in 1886 as Public Garden, the first park in China open to the public. Designed by a Scottish gardener in European style, it included a resting pavilion and a tennis court, aiming at the increasing number of foreigners living in Shanghai ever since the city became an international trade port in the 1840s.
Public Garden was closed to Chinese people between 1890 and 1928, however a popular story about a sign at the park's gate reading "No dogs and Chinese are allowed" is a myth, at least for this location. While these harsh words hit the spirit of the times, the park regulations stated in a more politically correct way: "The Gardens are reserved for the foreign community", and further down: "No dogs and bicycles are admitted". These two rules have probably contributed to the birth of the simplistic (though in essence correct) catch-phrase. In any case, the banning of Chinese from Huangpu Park and other parks in their own country 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 places in the neighbourhood like Garden Bridge and the New Bund Garden, a high-rise apartment building in Hongkou District.
[edit] Places nearby
- The Bund
- Waibaidu Bridge (Garden Bridge)
[edit] Reference
- Bickers, Robert A., and Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom. "Shanghai's 'Dogs and Chinese Not Admitted' Sign: Legend, History and Contemporary Symbol." China Quarterly, no. 142 (1995): 444-66.
[edit] In the media
In the Bruce Lee film Fist of Fury, a scene taking place at Huangpu Park gate has a (fictitious) "No dogs and Chinese allowed" sign, further adding to the legend.
