Suzhou Creek
Suzhou Creek, the biggest branch of the Huangpu River, is the mother river of Shanghai. For quite a long time, it was the seriously polluted natural waterway in Shanghai. Its history of pollution can be traced back to the 1920s. Thanks to the projects of sewage treatment and environmental rehabilitation to clean the Huangpu River and the Suzhou Creek in the mid-1980s, the Suzhou Creek has gradually become more beautiful.
"Riverside Residence" is a new concept for Shanghai life. Confident about the future of the Suzhou Creek, many residents have chosen to buy new houses by the waterway. Along the Creek there used to be many old warehouses, abandoned factory buildings, row upon row of slums, dirty lanes where people crowded together, and scurrying rats. Now great changes have taken place. The people of Shanghai have decided to develop the banks of the Suzhou Creek into the city's cultural oasis. As a result of the endeavor of some pioneering artists, the Suzhou Creek has now been turned into a new creative home for contemporary art, in addition to large number of old houses that have been put under protection by the Municipal Government.
