Zhabei District (simplified Chinese: 闸北区; traditional Chinese: 閘北區, Mandarin pinyin: Zháběi Qū) of Shanghai has a land area of 29.26 km² and a resident population of 810,211 as of 2003. It is one of the downtown districts of Shanghai though the commercial potential has been continuously undervalued. Facilitated with the Shanghai Railway Station, which used to be the only railway terminal of Shanghai (until the completion of Shanghai South Railway Station in 2006), Zhabei District is famous for its connectivity, which becomes the reason hi-tech and creative industries begin to accumulate in the district.

Historically, the district has been highly populated with working class residents. However, due to the shift in the structure of industries and increasing number of immigrants from outside Shanghai, partly due to its reasonable real estate price (compared to its counterparts such as Putuo and Hongkou), the district has become increasingly appealing to local inhabitants.

Richard Evans, author of Deng Xiaoping and the Making of Modern China (first edition 1993) said that he used the spelling Chapei for Zhabei in his book, along with other older spellings, because that name had been used for Anglophones for a long period of time and "to continue to use them is comparable to go on to using Vienna for Wien or Venice for Venezia."