Historical evolution

The State Council decided on September 26, 1992 to abolish Shanghai County and Minhang District and replace them with a new Minhang District. The new district covers the administrative areas of the former county and district.

Historically, the former Minhang District was under the jurisdiction of Shanghai County. Based on the artifacts unearthed from the site of Maqiao Culture, the history of Shanghai County can be traced back to over 4,000 years ago. Shanghai County became an administrative division in 1219.

It was first called Minhang during the reign of Emperor Hongzhi of the Ming Dynasty and was formally named Minhang in 1512. Shanghai County was placed under the jurisdiction of Jiangsu Province in 1918, and became part of the Shanghai Special City when Shanghai was under the Japanese rule. It was called Shanghai County again after the 1945 victory of the War against Japanese Aggression.

On May 15, 1949, Shanghai County was liberated and was placed under the jurisdiction of Sunan District first and Jiangsu Province later.

In January 1958, Shanghai County was placed under the jurisdiction of Shanghai Municipality.

In December 1959, Minhang District was established to replace the Minhang Town and Wujing District of Shanghai County. In June 1964, Minhang District was abolished and incorporated into Xuhui District, becoming two sub-districts: Minhang and Wujing. In February 1981, Minhang District was restored.

On September 26, 1992, Minhang District merged with the abolished Shanghai County to become the new Minhang District.

Maqiao Culture

The site of Maqiao Culture is located at Yutang Village, Maqiao Town, Minhang District, Shanghai. It lies on a belt-shaped shell mound called Zhugang. The belt is long from north to south and narrow from east to west. Maqiao Culture is a typical cultural heritage in the region of Taihu Lake, occupying a very important position in Chinas archaeological studies.

The land at the site of Maqiao Culture formed about 5,500 years ago, and began to see human activities during the transitional period from Songze Culture to Liangzhu Culture. By the Xia and Shang Dynasties, the place became the largest village in the region around the Taihu Lake, with the most typical social life at the time.

The village covered more than 150,000 square meters. From the Spring and Autumn Period and the Period of Warring States to the Tang, Song and Yuan Dynasties, the place became a settlement. In 1982, the archaeological community named the site of Maqiao as Maqiao Culture.

The site of Maqiao Culture was discovered in 1959, where several excavations were made in the 1960s and 1990s and more than 1,000 artifacts were unearthed. These excavations provided a scientific basis for inferring Shanghais history and valuable historical materials for deducing the land formation around Shanghai.