What are Shanghai's Biggest and Newest Residential Areas?

Nowadays Shanghai’s expanding at the speed of light - blink and you’ll miss a whole new shopping centre being built! All this new construction is giving some of the old residential area favorites - Lujiazui and Baoshan - a run for their money.

This is a list of the best new areas in Shanghai surpassing 1,000,000 square meters in size!

Wanyuan City

Size: 1,300,000 square meters

Where: Minhang Gumei

Wanyuan City stands proudly in the southwest of Shanghai. It took 12 years to complete, and with a whopping total area of 1.3 million square meters, it can accommodate up to 30,000 people!

The area is divided into six blocks labeled from A to F. Each block is connected by a green trail made up of courtyards, promenades and water features. This means that the houses are just out of earshot of the busy roads.

As Wanyuan City was built, of course the surrounding area improved its facilities too. Wanyuan City Hall is the first commercial centre in the area, and undoubtedly the first port of call for local residents. It’s got everything you could possibly need from catering, health, sports, education, and entertainment.

Wanyuan City is now well developed with a good transportation system. The famous Concord bilingual school is also in Wanyuan City, so unsurprisingly there’s a pretty big international community there already.

Pujiang Huaqiao City

Size: 1,300,000 square meters

Where: Minhang Pujiang

Minhang’s Pujiang Town also houses another huge community - Pujiang Huaqiao City.

Pujiang Huaqiao City was one of the first development and construction projects in Minhang. It covers an area of almost 2 million square meters (including 100,000 square meters of lake). The total construction area is 1.3 million square meters, including 800,000 square meters of the residential area, 230,000 square meters of commercial centres, and 270,000 square meters of office space.

Unlike other supersized residential projects, Pujiang Huaqiao City is a townhouse-based project (along with some apartments). Inspired by Italian style, the whole area is divided into a grid. Apparently if you walk in a straight line from District 6 to District 1, it’ll take about 20 minutes.

There are plenty of open spaces and a ton of gardens, rivers and lakes.

In the south of the area is O’MALL, a huge shopping centre that features large supermarkets, five-star studios, branded apparel, specialist restaurants, children’s play areas, recreation and entertainment.

Lujiazui Riverside Financial City

Size: 1,360,000 square meters

Where: Pudong Binjiang Dadao

After undergoing 150 years of trials and tribulations, Shanghai Shipyard has finally transformed itself into Shanghai’s leading urban complex: Lujiazui Riverside Financial City. It was built by CITIC Pacific and China Shipbuilding Industry Group.

Lujiazui Riverside Financial City occupies a total area of 250,000 square meters, with a building area of 1,360,000 square meters. That includes eight Grade A financial offices, landmark shopping centres (like Shangyuewan), shopping streets (like Shangyue Jie), a five-star hotel (Mandarin Oriental), the Culture & Arts Centre (part of the shipyard), and a residential area (Jiulu).

The high-end housing project Jiulu is focused on modernity, art and ecology. It will be made up of nine high-rise apartments on the riverbank, with a total area of around 114,000 square meters. It’s currently still under construction.

Shangyuewan is the shopping centre built for the project, and it includes Jimo Lu (a boutique shopping street), the International Music & Culture Centre, and Shenyang Commercial Plaza. It’s expected to become the leading fashion centre in Pudong!

Of course, Lujiazui is not just a place to chill out and relax. It’s also home to several financial institutions. Several big banks have set up their headquarters here, including the Construction Bank, Agricultural Bank of China, Industrial & Commercial Bank, and Industrial Bank!

Shanghai Changtan

Size: 1,400,000 square meters

Where: Baoshan Songbao

This container port reconstruction project, supported by the Shanghai Port Group and set up by Baoshan District Government, covers an area of 776,200 square meters, with a total construction area of 1.4 million square meters. It’s divided into seven major plots. In the future there’ll be forestry, leisure and residential spaces, as well as commercial cruises along the river.

In the residential area of the project, there will be 18 large-scale residential buildings of about 31 stories (97m), which will house around 10,000 inhabitants.

There’ll also be beautiful green scenery and a gorgeous view of the beach. There are going to be three main parks. They intend to keep an equal ratio of buildings to green spaces.

The riverside here stretches on for about 1.8km, so living here you’ll have a fabulous view that nobody else gets to enjoy. The riverside also boasts a yacht activity area, beaches, and various other activities.

Aside from the view, there will also be an international family leisure and shopping complex, making up a total of 360,000 square meters. The world’s third-largest IMAX cinema will be here too!

Jingwei City Oasis

Size: 1,500,000 square meters

Where: Baoshan Shangda

Jingwei City Oasis, located in the north of Qilian in Baoshan district and built by Jingwei Land, is a comprehensive living area integrating business, residential areas, and education. It covers an area of about 1 million square meters with a total construction area of 1.5 million square meters.

Due to its enormous size, the thirty-six apartments are being launched in batches of six. They’re going to be distributed in a sort of “patchwork” style.

Jingwei City Oasis is also one of the first verified eco-house projects in China, with a 40% green rate. It’s coupled with a natural river running through the houses and surrounded by tens of thousands of square meters of community parks.

The area is technically on Line 7, but it’s 1.5km away from the nearest Metro station, so there’ll be a shuttle bus put in place.

There will also be 20,000 square meters of shops, and about 250,000 square meters of other integrated commercial bodies (still in the planning phase). If that’s not enough, they also plan to set up an American-style street.

The area already boasts a kindergarten and a number of primary schools, as well as Shanghai Bond Vocational College and Shanghai University. Nevertheless, Jingwei City Oasis intends to build three more kindergartens, one primary school, and a nine-year school.

Ruihong Xincheng

Size: 1,700,000

Where: Sichuan Bei Lu, Hongkou

Hongzhen Laojie was once the “shanty town”in downtown Shanghai. But it went on to become the second (after Xintiandi) upscale commercial living area - Ruihong Xincheng.

It occupies 400,000 square meters, with a total construction area of up to 1.7 million square meters.

The residential project is divided into six parts: Ruihong Xincheng are parts 1-3, Ming Court is part 4, Jing Court is part 5, and finally Yi Court is part 6. There will be a total of 36 high-rise residential buildings, with tens of thousands of inhabitants.

Here there’s a whopping 17,000 square meters of pure greenery! Every residential block will have their own special garden.

With tens of thousands of people living in an area, of course there’s going to be more demand for commodities. In addition to its own city-centre commercial resources, Ryan Group has also spent huge sums of money on a community-owned integrated shopping mall called Ruihong Fang (30,000 square meters).

Despite not being the biggest shopping centre ever, it will have everything you could really need, like Starbucks and Haagen-Dazs.

Ryan Real Estate is also hoping to create the “new Xintiandi” here - 550,000 square meters of “Ruihongtiandi”.

Ruihongtiandi will be the first parent-child experience shopping street. It will bring together 120 branded stores and 46 global gourmet restaurants, as well as some flagship stores.

The project also aims to establish kindergartens and primary schools, and of course local residents will get priority. They will be joined to Hongkou Second Central Primary School and East China Normal University.

Jiayuan Shanghai Small Town

Size: Over 2,000,000 square meters

Where: Fengxian Situan

Jiayuan, in Fengxian district, covers an area of 1.2 million square meters and a total construction area of over 2,000,000.

It’s located in the intersection of Fengxian district and Pudong district. The project is divided into five phases of development and construction. Once it’s completed, the complex will house residences, hotels, office buildings, commercial buildings, and even government offices.

The project is currently working on Phase 1, which involves 6 residential buildings, a hotel and a serviced apartment. The total construction area is 90,000 square meters, and this is just the tip of the iceberg!

Dahua Jinxiu Huacheng

Size: 3,300,000 square meters

Where: Pudong Beicai

Dahua looks set to become Shanghai’s largest area of real estate with 3.3 million square meters!

It’s a super-residential project that integrates small high-rises, high-rises and townhouses. The enormous area is divided into 19 blocks, numbered from left to right and top to bottom.

Blocks 1, 3, 7 and 17 make up the community’s green belt, with 7 and 17 being the main sports park and wetland park. That is the Central Forest Park of over 200,000 square meters, a public park of 30,000 square meters and a recreational green space of 20,000 square meters.

The project brings together Subway lines 6, 7 and 13 (Phase II). However, it may be sometimes necessary to use buses instead of the Metro to get to certain places.

It’s a huge challenge to build on such an enormous area and incorporate real estate, business, and a home environment. Dahua Group have invested in the construction of over 40,000 square meters worth of shopping centre (Tesco Fairview Park) in order to create a better living environment for the residents. They’ve also created a 200m-long European shopping street, which has leisure and entertainment in one. And it goes without saying there will also be plenty of supermarkets, as well as various small- and medium-sized business facilities interspersed among the blocks.

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