People's Square 人民广场

About People's Square

Its transformation into a civic centre brought museums, theatres, fountains and public space into the middle of the city.

The square and adjoining People’s Park preserve different parts of the old racecourse footprint. The museum building, Grand Theatre and Urban Planning Exhibition Center give the surrounding streets distinct cultural destinations. A first visit can use the square to understand how these institutions relate to one another, rather than treating it as a single isolated monument.

The area was paddy fields before Shanghai's port opened, and the British concession expanded into it in 1848, building a moat and earthen wall known as Nicheng Bang (泥城浜). In 1863 the Shanghai Race Club, backed by the British consulate, took over land there to lay out the Shanghai racecourse, Paoma Ting (跑马厅), which was closed to Chinese visitors until 1909. The racecourse served as a Japanese army barracks after 1941 and later as a United States barracks and warehouse.

Chinese authorities recovered the racecourse in August 1951, and that September it was divided to create Shanghai People's Park and Shanghai People's Square. In 1954 the Race Club's buildings were taken over by the city government, and the clubhouse became the Shanghai Library. The square was comprehensively renovated from September 1992, with Fountain Square added in 1994. In 1997 the Shanghai Sports Palace, on the site since 1957, relocated, and the Shanghai Grand Theatre was built in its place.

The square covers about 140,000 square meters (35 acres). A bronze zero-kilometre marker is set into the pavement on its central axis, between the municipal flagpole and the Shanghai Museum, used as the conventional zero point for road-distance measurements on national highways and Shanghai's designated roads.

What to look for

• The former racecourse footprint explains the relationship between the square and People’s Park.
• Major museum and theatre buildings frame a civic landscape of fountains and open space.

Location & getting there

Getting to People's Square

People’s Square metro station serves the square; choose the street-side exit for the institution you plan to visit first.