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Explore the region
About Sihang Warehouse
A Chinese battalion held the building while other forces withdrew westward.
Its position across the creek from the International Settlement made the fighting unusually visible to foreign observers. The building’s scale and relationship to the river explain why this specific warehouse became a defensible position. Read the surviving structure and commemorative interpretation together, rather than treating military movements in historical accounts as present-day visitor directions.
The warehouse was established in 1931, when it was the tallest and largest building in the Zhabei area, and construction was completed in 1935. It was jointly owned by the Continental Bank (大陆银行) and three other banks known together as the 'North Four Banks' (北四行), and consisted of two adjoining sections generally referred to together as Sihang Warehouse. It is a six-story reinforced concrete building covering 0.3 hectares, with a floor area of 20,000 square meters and a height of 25 meters.
In 1994 the Shanghai municipal government designated the building an Excellent Historic Building (优秀历史建筑). On 16 October 2019 the State Council listed it, under the name 'Sihang Warehouse Anti-Japanese War Site' (四行仓库抗战旧址), as part of the eighth batch of Major Historical and Cultural Sites Protected at the National Level (全国重点文物保护单位).
The site was approved as an anti-Japanese war memorial site by the Shanghai Cultural Relics Management Committee (上海文物保管委员会) in 1985, but for decades much of the building was used as a commercial market. Relocation of commercial tenants was largely complete by January 2015, and the Jinyuan Memorial Square (晋元纪念广场) was built on Jinyuan Road that August; the site's war memorial hall opened to the public on 13 August 2015.
What to look for
- The warehouse’s substantial structure explains its defensive role in 1937.
- The Suzhou Creek frontage places the battle in relation to the former International Settlement.
Background & history
The Defense of Sihang Warehouse (Chinese: 四行倉庫保衛戰) took place from October 27 to October 31, 1937, and marked the beginning of the end of the three-month Battle of Shanghai in the opening phase of the Second Sino-Japanese War. Defenders of the warehouse held out against numerous waves of Japanese forces to cover Chinese forces retreating west during the Battle of Shanghai. The Chinese defenders were composed of a single half-strength battalion from the elite German-trained 88th Division, who had fortified and occupied the large "Four Banks" (Sihang) Warehouse in the downtown Zhabei district, along with several buildings. The warehouse's location just across the Suzhou Creek from the Shanghai International Settlement meant the battle took place in full view of the Western powers. Tens of thousands of Chinese and Western civilians were thus able to witness the battle as it unfolded.
Excerpt from Wikipedia: Defense of Sihang Warehouse · Wikipedia contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected introductory sentences; formatting simplified. Background information, not current visitor-service advice.
Location & getting there
Getting to Sihang Warehouse
Approach the Sihang Warehouse memorial on the north bank of Suzhou Creek in central Shanghai, using the building’s named visitor entrance.
Combine your visit
A suggested sequence linking the specific features of this visit.
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Warehouse exterior
Read the scale and riverside position of the defended building.
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Battle and memorial interpretation
Connect the physical structure with the events of October 1937.
This order is editorial. Confirm access and any transfers between stops; it does not establish a walking route, same-day connection or common admission ticket.
Find Sihang Warehouse
四行仓库 · 静安区
The pin marks the area, not the entrance.
More places nearby
Approximate straight-line distances between map pins, not travel distances.
People's Park 人民公园
Less than 1 km awayPeople’s Park occupies the northern part of Shanghai’s former racecourse, between Nanjing Road and People’s Square. A large pond and planted paths form a green space within the central shopping and museum district.
View guide →Shanghai Natural History Museum 上海自然博物馆
Less than 1 km awayShanghai Natural History Museum occupies a purpose-built home in Jing’an Sculpture Park. It moved here in 2015 from the former Cotton Exchange building, so old directions to East Yan’an Road refer to a different site.
View guide →Jing'an Sculpture Park 静安雕塑公园
1 km awayJing’an Sculpture Park combines outdoor art with lawns and planted space around Shanghai Natural History Museum. The works are distributed through a public park rather than arranged as a single indoor gallery sequence.
View guide →Sources & visit information
The linked encyclopedia sources support background and place descriptions. Current opening hours, ticket prices, booking rules and transport schedules have not been independently verified for this guide. Confirm them with the venue or operator before travelling.
Visitor information adapted and edited from Wikipedia contributors, “Defense of Sihang Warehouse” · CC BY-SA 4.0. Source revision 1372186525.
Background paragraphs translated and condensed from Wikipedia contributors, "四行仓库", Chinese Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0. Source revision 93521219.