Nanjing Road (Shanghai)

Nanjing Road (Chinese: 南京路; pinyin: Nánjīng Lù; Shanghainese: Nuecin Lu) is the main shopping street of Shanghai, China, and is one of the world's busiest shopping streets. The street is named after the city of Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu province neighbouring Shanghai. Today's Nanjing Road comprises two sections, Nanjing Road East and Nanjing Road West. In some contexts, "Nanjing Road" refers only to what was pre-1945 Nanjing Road, today's Nanjing Road East, which is largely pedestrianised. Before the adoption of the pinyin romanisation in the 1950s, its name was rendered as Nanking Road in English.

Nanjing Road is located in the city center, running in a west-east direction. Its eastern section (南京东路) is in Huangpu District and extends from The Bund west to People's Square. The western section (南京西路) begins at People's Square and continues westward towards Jing'an District.

The history of Nanjing Road can be traced back to the year 1845. At that time it was called “Park Lane”, which stretched from the Bund to He’nan Road. In 1854, it was extended to Zhejiang Road, and eight years later, once more extended to Xizang Road. In 1862, it was named formally “Nanking Road” by the Municipal Council, which administered the International Settlement. In Chinese it was usually referred to as the Main Road (大马路). Around 1930 it was a bustling street with at least one reported casino (probably at nr. 181). In 1943 the International Settlement was annulled, and after World War Two the government changed its name from Nanking Road to "East Nanjing Road", meanwhile they also renamed the former Bubbling Well Road "West Nanjing Road", and the general name of the two roads became "Nanjing Road", comprising five kilometres total length.

At the beginning of the 20th century, eight big department stores were established along the street. A series of franchised stores were also set up at that time.

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