Professors call for renaming Metro stations after nearby universities

Metro stations on Jinshajiang Road and Yan’an Road W. are advised to be renamed after two nearby universities, deputies to Shanghai People’s Congress suggested.

East China Normal University is near the Jinshajiang Road Station on Metro lines 3, 4 and 13, and Donghua University is close to the West Yan’an Road Station on lines 3 and 4.

Five of the city’s Metro stations are named after universities, including Shanghai University Station on Line 7, Jiao Tong University Station on lines 10 and 11, Tongji University Station on Line 10 and East China University of Science and Technology station on Line 15.

Line 18, which is scheduled to open soon, will have stations named after Shanghai University of Finance and Economics and Fudan University, while Line 19 — currently in planning — will have a station named after Shanghai International Studies University.

“Names of Metro stations should give voice to the city’s cultural and historical landmarks, of which universities are surely a part,” said Wang Hongzhi, vice dean of the College of Materials Science and Engineering at Donghua University. “It should become a rule that Metro stations located near universities are named after the institutions.”

Wang also suggested the bus station on Yan’an Road W. by Zhongshan Road W. and the Kaixuan Road Station on bus No. 71 be renamed after the university.

Yang Rong, a professor of economics and management at East China Normal University, added that naming the station Jinshajiang Road isn't ideal because none of its exits is on Jinshajiang Road, and people might confuse it with the West Jinshajiang Road Station on Line 13.