Zhabei, Shanghai — Area Guide & Where to Stay

What are the main landmarks in Zhabei?

Zhabei carries a run of museums out of proportion to its size. Jing'an Sculpture Park lays a wooded lawn and open-air works across the district's middle, while the Shanghai Textile Museum keeps the cotton-mill trade that once ran these streets on show under one roof. Nearby stands the Shanghai Optical Museum, a collection of lenses, spectacles and old instruments that few travellers arrive expecting.

The district even keeps a musical marker. A Monument to Johann Sebastian Bach stands within its blocks, an unusual thing to meet in this corner of Shanghai, tying the old workshop quarter to a strand of European concert life.

What is the history of Zhabei?

Zhabei grew up as a working quarter on the northern flank of Shanghai. Its name marks the ground north of an old sluice gate, and the district took shape around mills, rail yards and cotton sheds rather than villas. The story that lingers in the Shanghai Textile Museum belongs to those looms.

Mills built it. Put on its modern footing in 1945, Zhabei stayed a district in its own right for decades before it merged into neighbouring Jing'an, and the workshop grain still runs under the newer towers.

Where is Zhabei?

Zhabei is a compact inner part of Shanghai, roughly thirty square kilometres of dense city on the northern side of the centre, with Jing'an Sculpture Park as its main patch of green.