Daning Commercial District

Daning (大宁, Dàníng) is a shopping district in Jing’an District arranged around a large public park. It is a modern, planned neighbourhood with little of the old city in it, so it suits visitors who want an easy afternoon with a park, a mall and a circus show rather than historic sights.

The park came first. Daning Lingshi Park (大宁灵石公园, Dàníng Língshí Gōngyuán) opened on 1 May 2002 after construction from October 2000 to December 2001. It covers about 680,000 square metres, and was made by merging and expanding the earlier Daning Park and Guangzhong Park. Its north gate is at 288 Guangzhong West Road. Shanghai Circus World (上海马戏城) sits against its southern boundary, and the park’s east gate faces the Shanghai Circus World station on Metro Line 1.

Retail followed. The Daning International Commerce Plaza (大宁国际商业广场) ran a trial operation from 19 September 2005 and opened officially on 22 October 2006. It is an open-air complex of about 250,000 square metres in 15 buildings, with 11 plazas and 2 pedestrian walkways, near Gonghe New Road, Daning Road and Yanchang Road station.

The 2022-2035 commercial-space plan lists Daning as one of 29 city-level commercial centres, covering about 1.0 square kilometre with about 600,000 square metres of planned commercial floor space. The plan splits the area at Guangzhong West Road. The north part is to grow around Shanghai University and convert former industrial sites such as the blower works and the instrument works. The south part is to combine existing shops with the park and Circus World.