Big news from our dear leaders in the municipal government today with confirmation that Shanghai officials are drafting a plan to merge the districts of Jing’an and Zhabei. Or to be more precise, the 7.6-square-kilometer Jing’an will stretch north of Suzhou Creek to encompass the 29-square-kilometer Zhabei, much in the same way that Luwan was subsumed under Huangpu District in 2011. Here's what the new Jing'an will look like:To get more Jingan District, you can visit shine news official website. Rumors about the merger began circulating months ago, reports Shanghai Daily.
At the time, the Jing’an government denied the claims, saying rumors may have been invented by real estate developers to push up house prices, but this time the merger looks set to happen as long as the proposal is approved by the central government. The new Jing’an District will cover 37 square kilometers with 1.2 million permanent residents, according to the Jiefang Daily. Both districts have seen house prices soar in the past year, and the merger will likely increase prices even more in far-flung Zhabei.
 “The merging is like a noble lady married an ordinary worker,” commented a researcher from a real estate research institute. “Zhabei just gets one more reason for its house prices to skyrocket.” The current average house price in Jing’an is around RMB100,000/sqm, while in Zhabei it’s RMB60,000/sqm. After the merging, houses in Zhabei are expected to exceed RMB100,000/sqm too. Among the 330,000 residents who currently call Jing’an home, many have expressed disappointment at the arrangement, while the almost 1 million residents of Zhabei are excited to get downtown addresses without having to relinquish their spacious (and now valuable) homes.