Nanjing Road (Chinese: 南京路; pinyin: Nánjīng Lù; Shanghainese: Noecin Lu) is a road in Shanghai, the eastern part of which is the main shopping district of Shanghai. It is one of the world's busiest shopping streets, along with Fifth Avenue, Oxford Street, Orchard Road, Takeshita Street and the Champs-Élysées.[1] The street is named after Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu province and the former capital of the Republic of China. Today's Nanjing Road comprises two sections, Nanjing Road East[2] and Nanjing Road West.[3]
In some contexts, "Nanjing Road" refers only to what was pre-1945 Nanjing Road, then rendered as Nanking Road in English. The former Nanking Road lay entirely within the Shanghai International Settlement. Today's Nanjing Road West was formerly Bubbling Well Road, an extra-settlement road built by concession authorities outside the concession proper. The two roads met on the northern edge of the Shanghai Race Club.[4]