Jing'an Temple stands at the junction of Nanjing West Road and Huashan Road, ringed by shopping malls and office towers. It is one of the oldest temples in the city - a foundation on this site is usually dated to the third century - and it has been rebuilt repeatedly, moving once and burning more than once. What you see today is largely twentieth-century reconstruction in the classical style, with golden roofs and a seven-storey pagoda-like hall at the rear.
What to see
The temple is arranged around a central courtyard with a bell tower, a drum tower and the main halls in sequence. The Mahavira Hall holds a large silver Buddha, cast in recent decades and weighing several tonnes, along with a jade Buddha of substantial size. The halls are richly decorated with gilded statues, carved woodwork and painted beams, and there is a well-known camphor-wood statue of the Buddha in one of the side halls. The upper floor of the rear building looks out over the temple roofs and straight into the glass towers behind them.
The contrast
The reason to come is not the age of the buildings, which is modest, but the setting. Incense smoke rises in front of a shopfront for a global coffee chain, monks walk past office workers on their lunch break, and the temple courtyard is a pool of quiet in one of the loudest intersections in China. It is a very Shanghai sight.
Practical information
The temple is open daily, roughly 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., with a modest admission fee, and it is directly on Metro Lines 2 and 7 at Jing'an Temple station. Weekday mornings are calm; the first and fifteenth days of the lunar month are busy with worshippers. Photography is allowed in the courtyards but not inside the halls, and worshippers should not be photographed at prayer.
Nearby
Jing'an Park is next door, a small green space with a sculpture and a good view of the temple roofs, and the streets to the west lead into the former French Concession with its cafes and plane trees. The temple pairs naturally with a walk into that district.
