DISTANC: 2km (1.2 miles) plus taxis
TIME: A full day
START: Xujiahui metro station
END: Longhua Martyrs’ Cemetery
POINTS TO NOTE: Take the subway to Xujiahui station and follow the exit signs to the Bibliotheca. To see the old Jesuit library, go on a Saturday and call ahead to reserve a tour.
Meaning ‘Xu family village’, Xujiahui is named after China’s first Catholic family: Ming court official Xu Guangqi (also known as Paul Xu) was born here in 1562, and became Matteo Ricci’s first noble convert and academic collaborator. Like his friend Ricci, Xu was a gifted mathematician, astronomer and linguist.
Shanghai library
The local government has rebranded nine heritage sites in and around the Jesuit compound that once dominated this area as ‘Xujiahui Origin’. Drop into the Tourist Centre at 166 Puxi Road next door to the Cathedral, and pick up a free ticket allowing access to each of these sites (they won’t let you in without this), then follow the red-painted pathway with clear directions to the different locations.
Monkey King performance at the Longhua Pagoda
David Shen Kai/Apa Publications
The lovely Shanghai Library Bibliotheca Zi-ka-wei 1 [map] (Shanghai Tushuguan Xujiahui Cangshu Lou; 80 Caoxi Road; tel: 6487 4095 ext. 208; Mon–Sat 9.30am–5pm; library tours Sat, but call ahead to reserve), built in 1847 on land that had been donated by Paul Xu centuries before, was Shanghai’s first public library. The ground floor of the two-storey building is designed in the style of a classical Qing-era library, while the beautiful upper storey is a fine copy of the Vatican Library. The Bibliotheca holds 80,000 volumes in several languages and includes collections inherited after their owners had fled Shanghai, including that of the Royal Asiatic Society. There’s a very fine wooden carving of St Ignatius of Loyola on his deathbed and another of St Francis in the public reading room on the second floor.
Right next door are the soaring twin towers and flying buttresses of the French Gothic Xujiahui Cathedral 2 [map] (Xujiahui Tianzhutang; 158 Puxi Road; Mon-Sat 9–11am and 1–4pm, Sun 2–4pm; Mass (in Chinese) weekdays 7am, Sat 7am and 6pm, Sun 6am, 7.30am, 10am and 6pm). Originally called the Cathedral of St Ignatius, after the founder of the Society of Jesus order, the church has remained essentially unchanged since 1910, with the notable exception of the dramatic amputation of its 50m (165ft) twin spires and the destruction of all of its stained-glass windows during the Cultural Revolution.
The spires have been reconstructed, and new stained-glass windows created by a glass studio operated by nuns have been installed. The new panels feature Chinese images rendered as traditional papercuts, including a large rose window featuring a phoenix surrounded by the Chinese zodiac. Look high on the cathedral’s exterior to see some charming gargoyles peering down.
Buddha statues at Longua Pagoda
David Shen Kai/Apa Publications
Shanghai Library
David Shen Kai/Apa Publications
Tushan Wan Museum
Walk south along busy Caoxi Road for a long block, passing the statue of Paul Xu, then head west (right) on Nandan Road to Guangqi Park (Guangqi Gongyuan; 6am–6pm). Xu was buried here in 1641; a traditional Chinese ‘spirit way’ (row of ornamental columns and sculptures) was added to the tomb in 1903.
Continue west to Tushanwan Museum 3 [map] (Tushanwan Bowuguan; 55 Puihuitang Road; Tue–Sun 9am–4.30pm; free). Located in part of the old Jesuit orphanage that taught Western art and culture to its charges – and is considered the cradle of Western art in China – this excellent museum showcases the exquisite work created at the orphanage: paintings, photographs, prints and woodcarvings. The highlight is a pailou, or ceremonial gate, made for the Pan-Pacific Exhibition in San Francisco in 1915 and returned to Shanghai in 2010 for the World Expo.
Longhua Pagoda and Temple
Retrace your steps and cross Caoxi Road to the east side, to the former Zi-ka-wei Convent. After a tasteful restoration, it’s now occupied by the Ye Olde Station Restaurant, see 1, an excellent lunch stop. Continue north along Caoxi Road to the massive intersection, where the skyscrapers, traffic, video screens and giant adverts resemble New York’s Times Square. The Grand Gateway mall here (1 Hongqiao Road) is home to several floors of shopping and a cinema.
Take a taxi southeast past Shanghai Grand Stage and the Shanghai Stadium to Longhua Pagoda and Temple 4 [map] (Longhua Ta he Si; 2853 Longhua Road; daily 7am–4.30pm; charge). The dark red wood-and-brick octagonal Longhua Pagoda looks as if it popped straight out of ancient China – which it did, since its current shape dates from an AD 922 reconstruction. The petite pagoda served as a flak tower with anti-aircraft guns during World War II and was papered over with propaganda during the Cultural Revolution.
Across a paved pedestrian street is the rambling Longhua Temple complex, Shanghai’s largest and most active. Originally founded in AD 345, the Chan (Zen) Buddhist temple has been rebuilt several times and is a particularly fine example of Southern Song architecture. The current structure dates back to the 10th century.
Longhua contains some significant Buddha images: Sakyamuni Buddha’s Bodhisattva form in the Hall of Heavenly Kings, and the Maitreya (or Future) Buddha incarnation, also known as the ‘cloth bag monk’, in the Maitreya Hall. The temple’s Grand Hall features a gilded meditating Sakyamuni Buddha set under a spiralling dome, with a statue of Guanyin (the goddess of mercy) in the rear, while the Three Saints Hall showcases the three incarnations of the Buddha.
Striking Longhua’s bronze bell, cast in 1894 and weighing 6,500kg (14,330lbs), exactly 108 times to erase the 108 worries of Buddhist thought has become a Shanghai New Year’s Eve tradition. The Chinese New Year temple fair has also been resurrected here, with food, folk traditions and entertainment aplenty.
Martyrs’ Cemetery
Exit the temple the way you came in and turn right on to Longhua Road to get to the Shanghai Longhua Martyrs’ Cemetery 5 [map] (Longhua Lieshi Lingyuan; 180 Longhua Road; daily 9am–3.30pm; free). The cemetery commemorates the ‘White Terror’, the tragic massacre of young Communists by the ruling Kuomintang on 12 April 1927. In the early hours of the morning, they were roused from their beds and taken to the execution grounds at what was then the Longhua Garrison.
The cemetery today is a beautifully landscaped monument to the martyrs, with a blue-glass Louvre-esque pyramid and Memorial Hall. An eternal flame burns in front of a Herculean sculpture being swallowed by the earth, and the marble graves of the martyrs, many with heartbreakingly young photographs, lies in a semicircle. Exhibition rooms feature re-creations of the prison. An underground passageway to the rear of the Hall leads to the eerie execution ground. Spend some time wandering the vast parklands dotted with more giant concrete socialist-realist statues and wooded groves.
Shanghai Botanical Gardens
David Shen Kai/Apa Publications
Shanghai Longhua Martyrs Cemetery
Dreamstime
Shanghai Botanical Gardens
If you wish to extend your sightseeing, take a taxi 2km (1.2 miles) south from Longhua Martyrs’ Cemetery to the Shanghai Botanical Gardens (Shanghai Zhiwuyuan; 1100 Longwu Road; daily 8am–5pm winter, 7am–6pm summer; charge). This is a rambling expanse of lakes, pine trees and more than 9,000 plants. It’s noted for its bonsai collection in the Penjing Garden, the Orchid Garden, medicinal plants and a pair of 18th-century pomegranate trees. There’s a memorial temple to Huang Dapo on the grounds: she was the legendary figure who brought the technique of dyeing nankeen cloth to the region.
Food and Drink
1 Ye Olde Station Restaurant
201 Caoxi Road North; tel: 6427 2233; daily 11am–11pm; $$$
Fine Shanghainese cuisine is served up with a slice of nostalgia in this beautiful former convent. Diners can choose to be seated in the old-world dining room or in one of two restored train cars: an 1899 German model once used by the Empress Dowager or the 1919 Russian beauty that Soong Ching-ling rode around in.