During the
Tang dynasty, the area in modern Hongkou District may have been a beach included in a seawall (捍海塘) near the
East China Sea. In the early
Ming dynasty, it became known as 黃埔口 (Huangpukou) or 洪口 (Hongkou), as there is a river mouth debouched into the
Huangpu River, in the early
Qing dynasty, it was renamed as 虹口 (Hongkou). In 1845, an American bishop W. J. Boone bought an area of land there, and it later evolved into the
American Concession in Shanghai in 1848 and merged into the
International Concession in 1863, it was in large part reduced to rubble during the
Second World war when Shanghai was occupied by the Japanese. 20,000
Ashkenazi Jewish refugees from
Nazi-occupied Europe lived in an overcrowded square-mile section known to as the
Shanghai Ghetto, in the Tilanqiao neighborhood of Hongkew. In 1947, it was renamed as Hongkou District. ==Subdistricts==