Xujiahui, in the south-west of central Shanghai, is today a shopping and office district of malls and towers, and it is also the site of one of the most significant Catholic missions in East Asia. The connection began in the seventeenth century, when the family of Xu Guangqi - a Ming official, astronomer and convert who worked with the Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci - donated land here to the church. Over the following three centuries the mission grew into an institution with a cathedral, a library, schools, an orphanage and a scientific research centre, and much of it still stands among the modern buildings.
The cathedral
The cathedral of St Ignatius, built between 1906 and 1910 to replace an earlier church on the site, is a Gothic revival building in red brick with two towers, a tall nave with clustered columns and ribbed vaults, stained glass and a rose window. It is designed by a Jesuit architect and built by local labour, and at the time of its completion it was among the largest churches in China. It has been restored and is an active parish, with services in Chinese and, at times, in other languages. The interior is cool, tall and unexpectedly quiet given the traffic outside.
The rest of the quarter
Around the cathedral are the mission's other buildings. The old Jesuit library, founded in the nineteenth century and one of the great collections of Western books and Chinese rare editions in China, stands in the same block. The Xujiahui Observatory, established by the Jesuits in the 1870s, was for decades the centre of meteorology and astronomy in China. Schools and colleges founded by the mission became some of the city's leading institutions. Wandering the streets between them, you can still read the mission's shape in the layout of the blocks, even where the buildings themselves have been replaced.
Practical notes
The cathedral is at a major metro interchange in Xujiahui served by several lines, and the surrounding streets are easy to walk. The church is open to visitors outside service times, and admission is free; dress modestly and keep quiet. The library and some of the institutional buildings are not generally open to tourists, but the exteriors and the streetscape are worth an hour. The area is very crowded on weekends because of the shopping, so a weekday morning gives a much clearer view of the buildings.
