Fuxing Park

Fuxing Park

Fuxing Park is located at No.105 Yandang Road in Shanghai, adjacent to Chongqing South Road in the East, Fuxing middle road in the south, Sinan road in the West and Science Hall in the north. The park has four gates; the south gate is at the corner of Fuxing middle road and Chongqing South Road; the north gate is at Yandang Road; the west gate is at Gaolan road; the east gate is at Chongqing South Road. In 1995, the total area of the park was 88900 square meters. Carnivals and concerts are often held in the park.

Fuxing Park is the only garden in Shanghai that retains the French classical style, and it is also a masterpiece of the integration of Chinese and Western Garden Culture in modern Shanghai.

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Historical evolution

In the 1880s, Yandang Road, Chongqing South Road, Fuxing middle road and Sinan road used to be fertile farmland. There was a small village named Gu Jiazhai. At that time, a family surnamed Gu owned more than ten acres of land. A small private garden was built here. People called it "Gu Jiazhai garden". This is the original prototype of Fuxing Park.

In October 1844, the Qing government signed the Huangpu treaty with France, which stipulated that Shanghai and other five cities should be opened to France as trading ports, allowing the French to bring their families to live and engage in trade activities. In the 29th year of Daoguang reign, Shanghai Daotai Lingui and the French consul signed an exchange of letters, and designated the French Concession as Chenghe in the south, Yangjingbang in the north, Zhujiaqiao in Guandi temple in the west, Chaozhou guild hall in Guangdong in the East, Yangjingbang in the East. In the first year of tongzhi (1862), the French Concession established a Council to handle and take charge of all the affairs in the French concession. In 1899, the French consul general Bai Caitai and the members appointed by the governor of Liangjiang agreed on the new French Concession site: North to beichangbang (now the west section of Yan'an East Road and the east section of Yan'an Middle Road), West to gujiazhai Guandi Temple (now the north section of Chongqing Middle Road and Chongqing South Road), South to dinggongqiao, yangongmiao and datiebang (now fangbang West Road, Ximen road and Tianping Road) Shunchang Road, Taicang Road), east to chenghebang (now the west section of Renmin Road). The board of directors of the French government operates urban facilities, roads and houses in this area.

In 1900, when the Allied forces of the eight powers invaded Beijing, the French Council bought 152 mu (101300 square meters) of gujiazhai garden and its surrounding land with 76000 taels of Guiyin, and rented 112 mu (74700 square meters) of it to the French army to build barracks for the purpose of garrison. This place is called gujiazhai barracks. In the 30 years of Guangxu, the French army gradually withdrew, and French clubs rented part of the land to build tennis courts and parking lots.

On July 1, 1908, the board of directors made a decision to transform the garden into a park.

In 1908, when the park was preparing to be built, the public works office of the Council put forward a construction plan, which was designed by papot, a French horticulturist, according to the characteristics of French gardens. The Council hired him as an assistant supervisor of the project.

The park was built in June of the first year of Xuantong (1909) and opened to the public on the national day of France on July 14 of the same year.

At the beginning of 1910, the public works Department of the public Council appointed the French tarama as a full-time horticulturist to be responsible for the work of the park. In June 1917, the director of horticulture was set up in the public works Department of the Council, and tarama was still in charge. Other park keepers were foreigners, and some Chinese were not allowed to serve until the 17th year of the Republic of China.

The early French parks only occupied the central part of the present Renaissance Park, with a small area. In 1917, the Council hired a French engineer, jousseaume, to take charge of the large-scale expansion and thorough renovation of the park. The design scheme was basically approved in 1918 and construction began. The project was modified while designing until it was completed in 1926. During this period, young Chinese horticultural designer Yu Xiqi participated in part of the design and planning work, and some of his design drawings have been retained.

Since the park was mainly designed and constructed by the French in the early days, the overall style and layout of the park have European flavor. The most prominent feature of the park layout is that it is axisymmetric, grid like and patterned, and is good at flowers, trees, pavilions and mountain pools.

In June 1929, the Council of the French Concession began to sell five annual coupons, one dollar each, for five people. After the park is opened to the Chinese, the ticket price remains unchanged, and the park gains huge profits from the high ticket price.

In July of the 21st year of the Republic of China, French commercial tramcar and electric company approved to build four underground reservoirs under the lawn of the park, covering an area of 11.57 mu (7713 square meters). A pumping station covering an area of 409 square meters will be built near Fuxing middle road. In response to this project, the public Council allocated funds for the renovation of the park in 1922-23. In addition to restoring the lawn above the underground reservoir, a new green corridor and trellis were built in the west of the garden, a bridge was built on the stream of China Garden, and all the bamboo fences on the boundary of the garden were converted into walls.

In 1938, the ticket revenue of gujiazhai Park was $78864, which was 303% of the park's budget. In the early days of the Anti Japanese War, the ticket price was adjusted once a year. The annual ticket price of gujiazhai Park (including the zoo in the park) was increased from US $1 to US $15, the gate ticket price of Dayang was 5 jiao, and the gate ticket price of the zoo in the park was 2 jiao.

In 1943, the Wang puppet regime "took over" the Shanghai concession. In 1944, the Shanghai municipal government changed the name of gujiazhai park to Daxing park.

After the victory of the Anti Japanese War, on New Year's day in 1946, the park was renamed Fuxing Park, which means "national rejuvenation". At that time, the total area was 119 mu, which was open to the general public.

After liberation, the government built and expanded various recreational facilities in the park, with a total area of 138 mu.

During the "Cultural Revolution" in 1967, it was once renamed Hongwei Park, but it soon resumed its original name.

In the 21st century, Fuxing Park is changing with each passing day, focusing on strengthening the construction and management of the park. In 2002, the reconstruction plan of Fuxing Park, which is characterized by French Park, passed the expert argumentation. The original 2000 square meters of cement pavement was converted into granite floor, the north and south of the lawn was built into "flower border", two ecological toilets were reconstructed, all black roads were renovated, the whole drainage and sewage system was dredged, overhead lines were put into the ground, 1100 meters of cables and 900 meters of waste telephone lines were removed, four illegal buildings with an area of more than 200 square meters were demolished, all the greening was restored, camellia tree altar and Fuxing middle road were reconstructed Tree altar along the green wall.

In 2002, it was rated as a four-star Park in Shanghai.

Anecdotes and allusions

Discrimination against Chinese

In August 1909, when Gu Jiazhai Park was opened, it was stipulated in the regulations that Chinese people were not allowed to enter, but Chinese servants who took care of foreign children and served foreign owners could enter with their owners. At the same time, it also stipulates that dogs are not allowed to enter. This kind of discrimination against the Chinese has aroused the anger and condemnation of many patriots. Under pressure, the board of directors of the French Concession public Council decided on April 16 that a special committee composed of Schweitzer, Lirong and Wei tingrong discussed and amended the regulations of the French Park, which was implemented on July 1 of that year. The prohibition of Chinese from entering the park was abolished and admission tickets were adopted. From then on, Chinese began to enjoy the right to visit the French park all the year round at the cost of one yuan. Later, there were two kinds of tickets: one was a one yuan annual ticket, and the other was a dime temporary ticket, which could be played once.

Running a zoo

On August 13 of the 26th year of the Republic of China, the Japanese army invaded Shanghai. The Shanghai municipal zoo, located in Nanshi, not only cut off the source of funds, but also threatened the safety of nearby residents once the animal cages were destroyed by Japanese planes. Therefore, the municipal zoo management office sent a letter to the French Concession Council on October 22, offering to hand over the animals to gujiazhai park free of charge. On November 2, the Council decided to accept the animals, and the works department built iron cages and large bird cages, covering an area of 4000 square meters, near the original small zoo in the northeast of the park. On June 23, the zoo was officially opened to the public. In May, the Shanghai municipal government moved the animals to Zhongshan Park Zoo and raised them together. In the 37th year of the Republic of China, in view of the fact that the animal cages in Fuxing Park could still be used, the Municipal Public Works Bureau decided to restore the Fuxing Park Zoo. In addition to moving some small animals back to Zhongshan Park Zoo, it also added some animals, which was reopened in February of the 38th year of the Republic of China. After 1950, python, golden monkey and other animals were added. In 1959, an aquarium with fish and turtle as the main species was built. It was not until 1963 that the animals in the park moved to the western suburb park that the raising of animals in the park stopped.

Flying hero

In 1911, French Aviator Huanlong (1880-1911) was invited to Shanghai for a commercial flight performance. He carried a "yamama style" single engine monoplane and a biplane aircraft, and made an official flight performance on May 6 as scheduled. On this day, thousands of people in Shanghai vied to see the magic of the plane. Huanlong took off from Jiangwan horse race hall in a biplane. After passing through half of Shanghai, it arrived at the horse race hall in the center of the city. Suddenly, when the plane circled in the air, it stalled. As a rule, Huanlong can abandon the plane to save himself, but he can see that the place one kilometer below is full of people looking up and watching, and the abandonment of the plane may cause hundreds of casualties. So he did his best

Chinese PinYin : Fu Xing Gong Yuan