The French Concession
Site of the First National Congress of the Chinese Communist
Party in former French Concession in Shanghai
The French Concession Slideshow
The French Concession Photo Gallery (Downloadable Pictures)
The French Concession was established on 6 April 1849, when
the French Consul to Shanghai, Charles de Montigny, obtained
a proclamation from the Governor (Daotai) of Shanghai, which
conceded certain territory for a French settlement.
Its
borders were expanded twice, in 1900 and 1914. During the
1920s, the French Concession was developed into the premier
residential area of Shanghai. In 1943, during World War II,
the government of Vichy France announced that it would give
up its concessions in China. The French concessions of
Tianjin, Hankou and Guangzhou were handed over to the Wang
Jingwei Government on June 5, and the last, the Shanghai
French Concession, was handed over to the Wang Jingwei
Government on July 30. After the war, neither Vichy France
nor Wang's Nationalist Government were universally
recognised as legitimate, but the new post-war government of
France acknowledged that it was a fait accompli in the
Sino-French Accord of February 1946. This accord, signed by
Chiang Kaishek's ruling Kuomintang led to Chinese troops
pulling out of the northern half of French Indochina in
exchange for France relinquishing all its foreign
concessions in China as well as the colony of Kwangchowan.
In 1902, the Concession introduced platanes (London Planes)
as a roadside tree on Avenue Joffre. Because this tree, now
popular as a roadside tree throughout China, was first
introduced in the French Concession in Shanghai, it is known
in Chinese as the "French Plane".
The French Concession
remained largely unchanged in the early decades of Communist
rule in China. In the late 1980s and the early 1990s,
however, largely unregulated re-development of the area has
torn apart many neighbourhoods. For example, the London
Planes that graced the former Avenue Joffre were removed in
the 1990s, only to be later replaced after public outcry.
The old French Club building and its gardens, which used to
be a sports field in the early days, were gutted and became
the base of the high-rise Okura Garden Hotel.
After the
2000s, the government enforced more stringent development
and planning controls in this area.
(Wikipedia)
