Hongqiao Park was once a children's transportation park, and "Memory of the Sea" recreates a small Shanghai transportation | children | Shanghai

This spring, at the northwest corner of Zunyi Road and Xianxia Road, Hongqiao Park, which had been surrounded and sheltered for half a year, revealed its restored true appearance.

Entering Hongqiao Park from the corner of Zunyi Road and Xianxia Road, one can see the brightly colored words "PARK" and a white, simple circular corridor behind them. This is precisely the visual highlight and functional focus of the newly created "Hongqiao Yuanting" in the park.

It is said that this circular corridor with a diameter of 36 meters is made of the same membrane material as "Water Cube", which can create a changing effect of light and shadow. Under the corridor, there are also curved seats, sunken steps, and other devices that give off a sense of theater. Within a 400 square meter activity space, various activities such as outdoor concerts, press conferences, shopping malls, etc. can be held. This design avoids the awkwardness of trampling on the lawn during the original performance activities in the park.

Everything amazed the surrounding residents. However, in the past, what was this park like?

In 1981, the Majiajiao plot was demolished and leveled, and the construction of Hongqiao Development Zone was launched

The reopening of Hongqiao Park on May 12, 2023, photographed by Yao Zhikang

Formerly an orchard

Mr. Jin, an elderly man living in Tianshan Second Village on the north side of Hongqiao Park, told me that during his youth, his father was a model worker, and his family moved into a new public housing in Tianshan Second Village in 1956. His house is in the first row south of Ercun. He remembered clearly that outside the window was farmland and there was also a riverbank.

In 1958, the riverbank was buried and developed into an orchard by the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Landscape Architecture. This orchard happens to be located on the urban side of the urban-rural boundary - before 1981, Xianxia Road turned west to Gubei Road, and then north to Tianshan Road, forming a urban-rural boundary. Xianxia Road South, Gubei Road West, and Tianshan Road South are the boundaries of Shanghai County, while the opposite is the boundary of Changning District.

The farmland south of Tianshan Orchard is the boundary of the Majiajiao Production Team of Yan'an Brigade of Xinjing People's Commune in Shanghai County. Back then, there was a "Majiajiao" station on Yan'an West Road for the No. 57 bus.

The author consulted the Changning District Annals and recorded that the Tianshan Orchard is located at 101 Zunyi Road, covering an area of 38.51 acres. It was built by filling the riverbank during the mass greening activities in 1958. In 1959, the first batch of more than ten fruit trees were planted, including peaches, apples, pears, grapes, etc. In 1962, the orchard designated grapes and pears as the main fruit trees. A total of 49 grape varieties were introduced and cultivated. After more than ten years of screening, 9 varieties were selected as suitable varieties for the Shanghai region, including Nicaragua, white banana, red California, Italian, rose dew, golden queen, and black Han, for promotion.

Orchard grape cultivation, with the Nicaraguan variety as a typical example, was introduced in 1959 with a yield of 500 kilograms per mu. In 1964, with improved cultivation techniques, the yield per mu reached 2322 kilograms, making it the strongest grape variety in the entire orchard. In 1982, the first national grape research conference was held, and the cultivation experience of Tianshan Orchard was praised. Ge Gen, who presided over the experimental work at Tianshan Orchard, also wrote and published works such as "Shanghai Grape Cultivation", "Potted Grapes", and "Shanghai Grape Cultivation and Disease and Pest Control" based on grape cultivation practices.

In 1976, it was this Ge Gen who transplanted the "Giant Peak" grape from Shandong and Baoshan counties to the Tianshan Orchard. At that time, only four were planted, and after years of hard work by Tianshan Orchard workers, they quickly cultivated hundreds of them. In 1982, there was a bountiful harvest of grapes in the Tianshan Orchard. The "Jufeng" grapes had large grains, high moisture content, and a crystal clear appearance, resulting in a harvest of three to four thousand pounds.

In 1983, Changning District planned to promote grape cultivation throughout the region. According to news reports, as of the end of February this year, "15 units in Changning District have planted 123 grapes. In order to promote the experience of vertical greening, the Office of the District Greening Committee recently held an on-site meeting with more than 40 units at Zhonghua Pharmaceutical Factory to discuss grape cultivation knowledge and conduct practical operations. Each unit acted quickly, and the leaders of the District Political Consultative Conference actively took the lead in building sturdy and beautiful grape sheds, planting five large grapes, and mobilizing relevant units and retired workers to plant grapes.".

Children's playground

The urban-rural boundary of Xianxia Road was determined in 1956. In 1981, 25 years later, the boundary line advanced southward to Hongqiao Road. The reconstruction system of Yan'an Brigade north of Hongqiao Road has been abolished, and the land has been requisitioned by Hongqiao Economic Development Zone. The farmers in Xinjing Township, Shanghai County have thus become residents of Changning District.

When the fields in Majiajiao became a large construction site, the Tianshan Orchard also quietly underwent changes. In 1983, with the approval of the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Landscape Architecture, the Tianshan Orchard was rebuilt as the "Shanghai Children's Traffic Park", and the "China Children's Development Center Shanghai Scientific Parenting Base Children's Traffic Rule Education Practice Station" and "Shanghai Public Security Bureau Children's Traffic Rule Amateur School" were established. In 1987, on the "June 1" Children's Day, Shanghai Children's Transport Park was officially opened, which, together with Shanghai Huashan Children's Park, Aisi Children's Park and Jiading Children's Park, is called the four largest children's parks in Shanghai.

In the past, nearby residents could bring their children into the park for fun at any time. During holidays, kindergartens and primary schools in this district and other counties organize children to come to the park to learn and experience traffic rules, while also visiting the park for outings.

There are eight simulated buildings in the park, including the International Hotel, Peace Hotel, Shanghai Tower, Shanghai Sports Center, Shanghai TV Station, Shanghai Exhibition Center, Grand World, and Hongqiao Hotel. According to previous reports by the media, "Except the Hongqiao Hotel and Shanghai Stadium, which are scaled down at 1:25, the rest are scaled down at 1:20. Most of them will be more than 3 meters high, and some will be close to 4 meters high. These buildings will be built with steel pipe piles, welded light steel skeleton, and based on concrete floors and cement brick facades, symbolically reaching 80%. The top of the gold tower of Shanghai Exhibition Center will be gilded with anodized aluminum, the Hongqiao Hotel will be faced with brown glass, and the Shanghai Stadium will also be equipped with lights, which can be used as a playground for children. Simulated roads will be built around the buildings, including traffic lights at the entrances of 'Nanjing Road' and 'Xizang Road'. 6 The foot wide 'road' is crowded with cars, including 'Crown' cars, open top tour buses, motorcycles, and small policemen dressed in white clothes, blue pants, and big caps with traffic sticks in their hands, commanding the traffic calmly and freely."

The author's former residence is located at Lane 560, Yuping South Road, less than 800 meters away from the Children's Transportation Park. In the 1980s, when the author returned to Shanghai with his wife and children from Anhui to visit their families, he caught up with the opening of the children's transportation park and took his 5-year-old daughter to visit the park. The freshness of the trip made his adult daughter still talk about it. In 1987, the final of the Shanghai High School Student Traffic Behavior Rules Competition, jointly organized by the Municipal Public Security Bureau, Municipal Education Bureau, and Shanghai Television Station, was also held in the Shanghai Children's Traffic Park.

In 1986, the Shanghai tape factory across the road from the Children's Traffic Park still exists, and the Wandu Center Building was built later.

Scene of Zunyi Road Gate of Children's Traffic Park in 2004

Scene of Zunyi Road Gate in Children's Transportation Park in 2004

"The Wizard of Oz"

As time flows towards the 21st century, Changning District is expanding and constructing on the basis of Hongqiao Economic Development Zone, and the idea of transforming a children's transportation park has been put on the agenda.

The project started construction in 2005 and was completed the following year. The biggest change after renovation is to become a fully open urban park. The original children's transportation park was a closed area, with access starting from 101 Zunyi Road. The renovated Hongqiao Park, apart from being separated by a wall on the west side from the residential area, can be accessed on Xianxia Road, Zunyi Road, and Ziyun West Road, as well as on the south, east, and north sides, making it very suitable for white-collar workers and citizens in the surrounding business district to stroll and relax. In addition to the east-west and north-south main passages, as well as the inclined ladder shortcut, there is also a 385-meter-long red plastic circular landscape road in the park, which adds landscape elements such as jumping springs, dancing sprays, and geometric sculptures, supplemented by tree lights, column lights, water feature lights, and other lighting. As a result, Hongqiao Park has become the "Wizard of Oz" in the business district.

The overall renovation of the park this time absorbed 59 opinions from surrounding business district merchants, community residents representatives, and online sources. In the end, 18 of them were adopted, including optimizing the fitness track, increasing the configuration of characteristic plants, and increasing the area for holding events. Nowadays, there is a white passage shaped like an arch in the park, specifically designed for children, continuing the historical imprint of the "overpass" in the children's transportation park. The little tourists and traffic police who used to play here now have reached the age to hold their children's hands and revisit the old place.

On September 16, 2015, Changning District held the opening ceremony of the tourism, shopping, and art festivals on the lawn of Hongqiao Park