The Great World Entertainment Centre; facing onto the wide intersection of Yanan Lu and Xizang Lu; was the largest and most infamous entertainment complex of old Shanghai; with music; films; opera; magic; bars; brothels and fortune-tellers.

The Battle of Shanghai (1937); known in Chinese as Battle of Songhu; was the first of the twenty-two major engagements fought between the National Revolutionary Army of the Republic of China and the Imperial Japanese Army of the Empire of Japan during the Second Sino-Japanese War. It was one of the largest and bloodiest battles of the entire war.