Seven Treasures Town

Minhang encompasses Qibao (Seven Treasures) Town, whose preserved history is a foil to the obvious changes in other districts of Shanghai. The contrast between Qibao Town and Shanghai could be compared to that between a Ming or Qing Dynasty painting and a contemporary avant-garde art installation.

Qibao Town came into being in the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127), and reached its zenith in the Ming and Qing dynasties. It has been a meeting place for merchants ever since, and has also produced noted scholars. Qibao's accumulated profound cultural heritage makes it the origin of native Shanghai culture.

Textual research shows that Qibao was named after the Qibao Buddhist Temple, but locals often cite the seven treasures Qibo houses – the Feilai Buddha, Cuanlai Bell, Jade Axe, Golden Rooster, Lotus Sutra, Divine Tree and Jade Chopsticks – as the root of its name. Each treasure has its own legend.

The story of how the Feilai Buddha and Cuanlai Bell came to Qibo begins with a heavy rain, long, long ago, that lasted seven days and nights. At midnight on the seventh night a flash of lightning and a peal of thunder signaled the descent of two objects from the heavens. One landed in the Qibao Temple courtyard, the other floated down the Xianghuabang (present-day Minzhu Road) moat to the temple gate.

The next morning, the rain stopped and the sun shone. The townspeople flocked to gaze at the four-meter-tall iron Buddha and 1.9-m-tall bell standing before the temple gate. The abbot bid them move the bell into the temple and take the iron Buddha to Dongsheng Hall in the south of the town. When the bell was in place, an itinerant Buddhist monk told the townsfolk, "You should wait three days and nights before striking this bell," and walked away. Puzzled, the people tried to fathom why the monk would want to deter them from hearing the bell ring. One novice, tired of waiting, struck the bell with the fish-shaped percussion instrument, made out of a hollowed-out wooden block, used to beat time while chanting scriptures. The townspeople exchanged appreciative comments on the bell's solemn, pleasant tone. But soon after the wandering monk reappeared and told them, "This bell was cast from the essence of five metals: gold, silver, copper, iron and tin. When in place, it can be heard from as far away as I could travel in three days and nights. As I was only 20 miles away when I heard the bell strike, its echoes will never be heard any further." He then left. The iron Buddha has since been lost, but the 1.9 m tall, 9 cm thick, one meter in diameter bronze bell remains.

The Lotus Sutra – a True Tale

A concubine of Qian Chu, the King of Wuyue of the Five Dynasties (907-960), spent five years transcribing the Lotus Sutra on to blue paper using ink of powdered gold. The king presented the sutra to the Lubao Buddhist Convent in Songjiang. As Lu in Chinese sounds similar to the character "liu" meaning "six," the Lotus Sutra, as its most precious treasure, gave the convent its name of "Seven Treasures" (Qibao) Temple. The temple was later moved from Songjiang to the town that took its name. Only 24 of the sutra's 31 pages remained by the late Qing Dynasty, and 19 pages by 1949. The Lotus Sutra is now an exhibit at the Shanghai Museum. Copies of it are on display in Minhang District Cultural Relics Exhibition Hall.

The streets and lanes of Qibao Town are in a Northern Song Dynasty arrangement, its small bridges and rivers lined with whitewashed gray-tiled residences typical of southern China. Qibao buildings are in the style of the Ming and Qing dynasties.

Standing on the Tang Bridge, built in 1520, the 13th year of Ming Emperor Zhengde's reign, I could hear the Cuanlai Bell ring while enjoying a Qibao muskmelon. I crossed the bridge to the Miniature Sculpture Exhibition Hall to read A Dream of Red Mansions carved on stones and see other miniature carvings, and later took a look at the works of the great sculpture Zhang Chongren at his memorial. The juxtaposition of traditional Chinese miniatures and Western sculpture by the Puhuitang River adds an international flavor to Qibao's long, narrow streets in their classical Northern Song layout. Visitors to Qibao find the folk portrayals of Ming and Qing trade fascinating and enjoy performances at the Qing-style Qibao Puppet Theater. They also relish the traditional cuisine served at the time-honored Tianxiang-lou Restaurant.

Huangpu River Water Culture Garden

Another of Minhang's charms is the Huangpu River Water Culture Garden on Jiangchuan West Road. Based on the theme of protecting water resources and respect for its river source, the Water Culture Garden's ancient bridges, representative of civil engineering works in specific regions of the country, act as an historical showcase for the Huangpu River and ancient Maqiao Culture. This 140-hectare ecological expanse, divided into three theme zones, also functions as a site for cultural exhibitions, scientific popularization, ecological demonstrations and leisure tourism.

The Ancient Ecological Park features landscaped stones and river courses spanned by 25 relocated Ming and Qing Dynasty bridges, also replicas of imperial architecture. Its sights include a simulated image of the Maqiao Culture remains. More than 600 century-old trees grow in the zone.

The Agricultural Sightseeing Paradise runs on modern agriculture. It offers sightseeing tours of farming life on the banks of the Huangpu River, and the chance to be a part of rural culture, leisure and entertainment. This paradise consists of eight projects, including the agricultural ecology exhibition area, the riverine village exhibition hall, the aquatic economic crops area, an angling area, orchards, a shopping and leisure street, a farm household holiday village, and an agricultural science and technology exhibition hall.

The huge rocks scattered in the Water Culture Garden are from different localities, including Taihu rocks, San-jianghong rocks, stalactites, pumice and Lingbi stones, all in distinctive shapes that appear to have been carved. There are also some 50 ancient bridges, authentic and replicated, such as the five-arch Hanxiang, single-arch Xiangjing and three-arch Xingshi bridges. Behind each is a depiction of the associated period of history and its most famous legend.