Back to the early Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), the district on each side of the river was said to come within different jurisdiction. According to the county annals, the east side was administrated by Shanghai County, while the west by Jaiding County. It was the demarcation line - the Huangpu River that endowed the name of both districts with the east side called Pudong and the west Puxi respectively. Due to the vividness of both names, they were soon inscribed in locals' mind. And they are still in use even now although the once extremely vast area was divided into many small sub-counties in the later years and was no longer huge as it used to be.

Nanhui and Baoshan counties took the lead in 1725 to depart from their mother county - the Shanghai County; and Chuansha in 1805 followed suit with the intention to take on independent administration. But such division didn't make the other three counties fare better than before and on the contrary, led to serious disparity in economic development. Shanghai's Puxi section apparently took the leading position which also brought Pudong's economy up, but the other three counties were not that lucky and were left far behind.

Residents in Pudong section became rather proud of their affluent life and started to look down upon those who came from the other three counties. In order to better differentiate themselves from others, they named themselves "Native Shanghainese."

But actually, the pure origin of native Shanghainese could be traced to even earlier before. Few realized the fact until after the 1930s when the Pudong section of Shanghai County was facing a new round of division.

Eight districts including Yangsi District and Sanlintang District were then established with the latter one being the largest and the most prosperous among all the other districts. Folklore had it that it was a man named Lin Legeng who established the Sanlintang district during the Song Dynasty (960-1279). Lin was said to be trying to flee from his foes and happened to come across here, deeply enchanted by the charming environment, he decided to settle down for good. As Lin's offspring multiplied as the years went by, two groups of the clan members moved away from the main manor and set up their farms nearby and there came the name of the township - Sanlintang. "San" means three in Chinese and "Lin" is the family name, while "Tang" stands for the small bay flowing past the small town.

Since then, residents living in the Sanlintang area were regarded as "Native Shanghainese" and enjoyed high respect. And what's more, horsebeans produced there were called "Native horsebeans" and sold at a higher price than other non-native ones.

| frontpage | nation | business | HK\Taiwan | snapshots | focus |
| governmentinfo | economic insights | campus life | Shanghai today | metropolitan |