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Jing an temple shanghai9/10/2023 ![]() “The temple is a clean and well-kept place, but is greatly handicapped through lack of funds. ![]() The writer first described the well-known “Bubbling Well” with “its muddy water, carbonic acid and marsh gas.” Hickmott wrote about his tour to the temple in great details, which was recorded in the North-China Herald on December 29, 1923. In his “Guide to Shanghai,” an expatriate named A. The temple attracted a continuous stream of visitors and people wrote about their tours in old records or poem collections,” said Zhang. Poems of the Jing’an Eight Scenes had been edited into collections. “Ancient Chinese temples had often been a place for writers to wander and jot down their thoughts and feelings. Small rivers, a stone tablet, bubbling well, rockery, flowers and woods were arranged in an elegant way so the “Garden of Jing’an Eight Scenes” covers an area of 2,300 square meters. It boasted eight famous scenes, one of which was certainly the “Bubbling Well” fronting its main gate acclaimed as “the Sixth Spring of the Earth.”Īs times went by, all the eight scenic spots disappeared, but were revived in a Chinese garden inside Jing’an Park. The temple was not only big, but also beautiful. Jing’an Temple in the 19th century, then located in the western suburbs of Shanghai.Īfter moving to Bubbling Well Creek, the ancient temple gradually expanded and grew to be a gigantic temple in the Yuan Dynasty (12711368). He and other historians are still searching for more sources to prove this.Īccording to the 2013 book, “Traces of Place Names in Jing’an District,” edited by the district’s urban planning and land management bureau, the temple was first named Hudu Chongyuan Temple, renamed Yongtaichan Temple during the Tang Dynasty (618-907) and got the present name Jing’an Temple in 1008 during the Song Dynasty (960-1279). today,” said scholar Zhang Sheng from the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences who has researched the urban and architectural history around Jing’an Temple.Īfter researching a Songjiang record named Yun Jian Zhi or Record among the Clouds, published in the 1190s, Zhang traced the temple’s history back more than 1,600 years, which made Jing’an Temple the oldest Buddhist temple in the southern region of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. After that the temple was moved to the bank of Bubbling Well Creek, which is the present site of 1686 Nanjing Road W. “The temple formerly perched on the bank of old Wusong River (today’s Suzhou River), which was constantly attacked by river waves, finally crashed in a flood in 1216. Go and relax for a while.Some scholars trace the history of Jing’an Temple back more than 1,600 years, which made it the oldest Buddhist temple in the southern region of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. This is one of the best temples I visited in Shanghai. You can also use the Big Bus as it stops right across the road from the entrance. Situated on the corner of west Nanjing Road and Huashan Road, near the Metro, you can get there using green route 2 or orange route 7 to stop unsurprisingly called Jing'an Temple. The bell tower was not open to the public. There was plenty of incense burning on the day I was there and many trying to put a lucky coin into the holy vessel in the courtyard. You are free to wonder around and do go around the back of the grand staircase to enjoy the peace and tranquility. Out of respect for those coming to pray in their own temple, I will only take photos if no one is in the sacred rooms. There is no hassle and you can take photos of what you like. Once inside the noise from the street disappears. Some debate as to whether it is free to get in or not, but I paid a small entrance fee and was comfortable doing that. It is a calm oasis amongst all the shopping malls in the area that have sprung up around it. I visited this temple on a Tuesday morning in late October with the sun shining.
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