The Pumpkin Lane Shack Settlement

The Pumpkin Lane Shack Settlement

The Pumpkin Lane Shack Settlement is a protected cultural heritage site of Shanghai.

The Pumpkin Lane Shack Settlement

Located on the west side of the south end of the overhead bridge at the intersection of Tianmu Middle Road and Gonghexin Road in Zhabei District, after the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the shacks were gradually renovated, but living conditions remained very poor. In 1963, the Shanghai urban construction authorities decided to redevelop Pumpkin Lane, and by 1965, five-story residential buildings had been completed, equipped not only with electric lighting and running water but also gas and flush toilets. The total built-up area was 69,000 square meters, and most of the original residents moved back into the new homes. By 1965, the area was home to approximately 7,700 residents.

Originally a natural village called Yaojiazhaiqiao, it was a settlement for impoverished laborers. In the 1920s, lane houses such as Zhiyuli were built, along with structures like Haichang Guild Hall and Tonghe Cloth Mill. At the beginning of the August 13th Incident in 1937 during the Second Sino-Japanese War, Japanese aircraft carried out intense bombings, destroying all the buildings. Later, refugees from northern Jiangsu and other regions built makeshift shacks on the ruins, planting pumpkins and other crops in front of and behind their homes to stave off hunger. Locals referred to pumpkins as "fan gua" (蕃瓜). One year, a particularly large pumpkin grew there, with twisted vines and a bumpy surface; residents said it resembled a dragon and called it the “Pumpkin Dragon.” As more and more people built shacks and settled, many worked as dock laborers, rickshaw pullers, handcart haulers, or earned meager incomes as seamstresses for the poor (“feng qiong”) or by collecting trash. This formed one of Shanghai’s larger shantytowns, which came to be known as Pumpkin Lane.

The shacks had bamboo poles for supports, walls made of reed mats or bamboo fences, thatched roofs, and doors and windows cobbled together from old wood. They were low, dark, damp, and gloomy. The so-called “rolling dragon huts” (滚地龙) were even more rudimentary—semi-circular or triangular structures made from rolled reed mats, covered with thatch, and with torn mats hanging at the ends as doors. When it rained, the earthen floors of both the shacks and the “rolling dragon huts” became waterlogged, and the roofs leaked. The shantytown accumulated mountains of garbage, becoming a breeding ground for rats, flies, and mosquitoes. There was no electricity, running water, or even wells; residents drank water from the Suzhou River. After the five-story residential buildings were completed in 1965, a small corner of the shack settlement under the bridge was preserved with 18 original shacks, and several “rolling dragon huts” were replicated. In 1977, it was designated as a protected cultural heritage site of Shanghai.