Sheshan is also nicknamed Orchid and Bamboo Mountain. A folk tradition says that the mountain was blanketed in orchids in every spring in ancient times. One day a senior official came to see the flowers, but was disappointed that winds had devastated the scene. Furious, he ordered locals to find a way of sheltering the flowers from wind. Bamboos were planted on the slopes as a solution. Amazingly, the bamboo shoots, a traditional foodstuff, turned out to be tinged with an orchid flavor. During a visit to the region in 1707, Qing Emperor Kangxi was impressed with the special flavor of the local bamboo shoots, and so named Sheshan Orchid and Bamboo Mountain.

Sheshan witnessed the great love affair between native scholar Chen Zilong and Liu Rushi, an accomplished independent-minded courtesan. Liu met Chen at a banquet, and fell in love with him at first sight. Days later she paid him a visit dressed in man’s clothes, but Chen gave her the cold shoulder. She sneered: “Without eyes to see beneath the veneer, how can you deserve the reputation of a renowned scholar?” This prompted Chen to take a second look at the lady, and eventually pour out his heart to her.

The two found time for trysts together in Sheshan, and left behind a raft of poems exchanged between them, mostly about their shared life and lovers’ vows. But the romance was doomed once Chen’s wife learned about their relationship and marshalled every resource to separate the lovers. Under pressure, Liu Rushi left Sheshan, and though she had other affairs in later years, the best known resulting in her marriage to senior official and scholar Qian Qianyi, she never forgot Chen Zilong, and expressed her love for him in many poems, as did Chen.

Sheshan was also the site of China’s first observatory, the Sheshan Catholic Church and the Xiudaozhe Tower. The church was built in 1871 in the Qing Dynasty, and expanded between 1925 and 1935. Its style shows a distinct mix of Greek, Roman, Gothic and Chinese elements. Every May, the month dedicated to the Holy Mother, pilgrims flock to the shrine, which has a capacity for 4,000 faithful.

At the foot of Sheshan lies a lake of 27 hectares that connects with the Huangpu River. Adjacent is a large arboretum, whose plant displays merge imperceptibly into the woods of the verdant mountain.

Songjiang’s modernity also appeals. A case in point is Thames Town, a commercial and residential district whose design is based on Shakespeare’s birthplace in England. A 2004 article in The Guardian describes it thus: “In a small corner of the giant construction site that is China, something rather quaint is happening: modern skyscrapers are giving way to Georgian terraces, concrete squares are being discarded in favour of English village greens, and instead of the usual eight-lane superhighways there are winding cobbled lanes…Squeezing 500 years of British architectural development into a five-year construction project, Thames Town will have half-timbered Tudor-style buildings at its centre, a waterfront of Victorian red-brick warehouses, and an outlying area of gabled 20th-century buildings bordered by hedges, verdant lawns and leafy roads.” The project is seen as an expression of the growing desire on the part of China’s expanding middle class to retain intimacy with nature as well as Songjiang’s easy acceptance of other cultures.

College City in Songjiang also attracts throngs of visitors every year for its scenic campus that is shared by seven universities. Songjiang was traditionally an incubator of scholars and artists, and is therefore an ideal locale for academic establishments. Each university has its own architectural identity, but they consciously adapt to each other to present a pleasant whole. In a delightful pastoral setting, College City is called the most beautiful campus in China.

On Shanghai’s doorstep, Songjiang shares in the bounty of this regional hub of politics, economy and culture. It is catching up with Pudong and Minhang districts economically, and in terms of cityscape it has already overtaken its two big brothers.

Watching the Huangpu River as it winds across a cloud-dotted horizon, one appreciates why the region was originally called Yunjian, amid the clouds, and feels so close to heaven.