Shanghai for Free 3; Xujiahui and it's long history.

Join me as I show you several historical sites in the south west Shanghai district of Xujiahui. The cathedral, observatory, old and new libraries, park dedicated to Xu Guangqi, school and museum.
With thanks to wikipedia;
en.wikipedia.o...
Xujiahui is a locality in Shanghai. It is a historic area of commerce and culture administratively within Xuhui District, which is named after the locality. The area is a well-known precinct for shopping and entertainment in Shanghai. It is served by the Xujiahui Station of the Shanghai Metro.
The tomb of Xu Guangqi in Xujiahui, Shanghai.
Xujiahui means "Xu family junction" - more precisely, "property of Xu family at the junction of two rivers". The "Xu family" refers to the family of Xu Guangqi (Hsü Kuang-ch'i; 1562-1633), China's most notable Catholic convert. Most of what is now Xujiahui was once the ancestral home of the Xu family. Baptized by famed Italian Jesuit, Matteo Ricci, Xu Guangqi and his descendants donated large plots of land to the Catholic Church, including the site of the St. Ignatius Cathedral.
St. Ignatius Cathedral, Xujiahui, Shanghai.
During the 18th century it was known by Shanghai's western residents as "Ziccawei" or "Siccawei" in English, and "Zikawei" or "Zi-ka-wei" in French, from the pronunciation of its name in Shanghainese. These names survive in the names of some institutions, such as the Bibliotheca Zi-Ka-Wei, and the area is still listed in a number of contemporary guidebooks and literature as "Zikawei" or some variant thereof.
The former site of the Siccawei Observatory is now a part of the Shanghai Meteorological Center.
With land donated by Xu Guangqi's family and those acquired by other means, the Society of Jesus established a grand cathedral as well as an entire one square mile complex that covers most of present-day Xujiahui. In addition to the cathedral, the French Jesuits also built orphanages, monasteries, schools, libraries and the Xujiahui observatory [zh] (now the Shanghai Bureau of Meteorology).
In time, it became a stronghold of Catholics in East Asia. One of the first structures to be built by the Jesuits was the St. Ignatius Cathedral in 1847, later reconstructed in 1906. The Cathedral is located on what is now known as North Caoxi Road and is still referred to in English as the St. Ignatius Cathedral. The sign on the street calls it simply "Catholic Church." The cathedral was featured in the opening scenes of Steven Spielberg's 1987 film Empire of the Sun.
The Bibliotheca Zikawei, now a branch of the Shanghai Library.
A number of other structures survive from its days as a center of Catholicism. One is the Collège Saint Ignace or Xuhui College on 68 Hongqiao Road, now renamed Xuhui High School (or Xuhui Middle School). Established by Jesuits in 1850, Xuhui (St. Ignatius) College was the first educational institution in China to offer a fully western curriculum. Another is the Bibliotheca Zikawei (or Bibliotheque de Mission), now a branch of Shanghai Library, adjacent to the cathedral. Several of the convent buildings scattered around Xujiahui are still visible in various states of preservation: one (structurally modified but still recognizable) serves as the office of the Xuhui District Government and People's Procurate. The Tou-Se-We Orphanage operated by the church, whose workshops supplied much of the religious art on Xujiahui's religious buildings, is half a mile to the south of Xujiahui junction; the sole surviving building of the orphanage is now the Tou-Se-We Museum.
The educational institutions founded by the Catholic church led to Xujiahui's reputation as a center of education. The Aurora University was founded by the Jesuits in Xujiahui. The imperial Nanyang Public School system was founded in Xujiahui at the end of the 19th century, and the historic main campus of its most prominent descendent school, Jiao Tong University, one of Shanghai's most prestigious, is still located in Xujiahui. Fudan University, also one of Shanghai's most prestigious, was located in Xujiahui until 1922.
While central Xujiahui was administratively part of the Chinese area of Shanghai, it was in reality controlled by the Catholic Church, which was closely associated with the French authorities of the French Concession. From 1914, Xujiahui sat just outside the borders of the French Concession, and remained under heavy French influence.
From 1949 onwards, most of the large houses and estates in Xujiahui were compulsarily acquired or seized by the government and converted into factories. Up until the late 1990s, the area was predominantly an industrial area.
During the late 1990s, many of the state-owned factories were sold off and torn down. Xujiahui is now mainly a retail district of downtown Shanghai.
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