Songjiang Sijing Ancient Town

Songjiang Sijing Ancient Town

Sijing Town is located in the northeastern part of Songjiang District, Shanghai. If calculated from its establishment as a village during the Northern Song Dynasty, it has a history of nearly a thousand years. The town originated as a village in the Northern Song Dynasty and was initially called Huibo Village. It was renamed Qijian Village during the Southern Song Dynasty. It was not until the mid-Yuan Dynasty that it officially took the name “Sijing” due to the convergence of four waterways—Waibo Jing, Tongbo Jing, Dongjing, and Zhangjing. In the late Yuan Dynasty, the literati Tao Zongyi relocated his family here to live in seclusion, building the “Nancun Cottage” south of the Sijing River, while the book collector Sun Daoming constructed the “Yingxue Studio” north of the river. The area began to develop into a market town in the late Yuan Dynasty, known as “Sijing Li.” During the Zhengde era of the Ming Dynasty, it was renamed “Sijing Market.” Xu Shou from Qibao funded the construction of nine stone bridges along the northern bank of Puhuitang, improving transportation between Qibao and Sijing, which gradually expanded the town’s scale.

During the Wanli era of the Ming Dynasty (1573–1620), three three-arch stone bridges on the Sijing River—“Pudu,” “Fulian,” and “Wu’an”—were completed one after another, connecting the areas north and south of the river, and the marketplace flourished daily. In the Qing Dynasty, shops stood densely along both sides of the flagstone-paved streets, with buildings facing each other. The town was described as “a hub of diverse trades, with a bustling population, crisscrossing streets, and bridges in sight.” The town suffered repeated devastations during periods of conflict, including resistance against Japanese pirates, the Southern Campaign of the Qing army, the Taiping Rebellion’s attack on Shanghai, and the Anti-Japanese War. Particularly during the Japanese invasion, two-thirds of the town’s houses were destroyed, the eastern half was almost razed to the ground, and the resident population plummeted. After the victory of the war, soaring prices and widespread hardship prevented any recovery of the market.

After the liberation, the town’s development thrived, gradually evolving from a commercial consumer town into an industrial-focused municipality. In recent years, the urban development of Sijing Town has changed rapidly, with industrial growth becoming more scaled, real estate development becoming more high-end, town construction more functional, agricultural development more urbanized, and urban-rural integration more comprehensive. Adhering to the industrial development strategy of “stabilizing the secondary sector, advancing the tertiary sector, and adjusting the primary sector,” the town has formed the foundational structure for sustained and stable development in the new era.

The new town has built three scenic streets: Gulang Road, Jiangchuan Road, and Kaijiang Road, while also planning and constructing the riverside scenic boulevard along the Sijing River. The old urban area covers a planned area of four square kilometers, using a method of protection and renovation to build the Kaijiang Road Pedestrian Street. The core areas along Kaijiang Road and both sides of Sijing Town have been renovated, forming a Jiangnan water town character integrating commerce, residence, tourism, and leisure. Efforts are dedicated to restoring the appearance of Sijing as a water town, ancient town, administrative town, and market town. By 2005, the central urban area of the town had expanded to 8 square kilometers, forming an ancient town area centered around Kaijiang Road, a high-end villa area centered around Sichen Road, and a business district centered around Gulong Road. The first phase of the Shanghai Metro Line 9 Sijing New Town project was completed; the entire town gained convenient urban roads and developed a “three verticals and three horizontals” road network.

Address: No. 1 Renmin Road, Sijing Town, Songjiang District, Shanghai

Type: Ancient Town / Ancient Village

Transportation

In-town buses: Songjiang Routes 45/46/47, 1845, 1846

Passing buses: Shanghai-Songjiang Line, Shanghai-Sheshan Line, Shanghai-Chenxiang Line, Shanghai-Sheshan-Kunshan

Rail transit: Shanghai Metro Line 9

Sijing Town: The ancient town of Sijing gets its name from the convergence of four waterways—Tongbo Jing, Waipo Jing, Dongjing, and Zhangjing—here. The Sijing River runs through the center of the town, dividing it into northern and southern halves. With shimmering blue waves and bridges reflected in the water, the area boasts a strong flavor of the Jiangnan water town. In 1953, Sijing was approved by the State Council as a county-level established town and is a well-known cultural ancient town in Shanghai. In 2005, Sijing Town was designated as part of Shanghai’s suburban historical and cultural landscape area. Sijing covers an area of 24.24 square kilometers, with 10 administrative villages, 4 neighborhood committees, and a permanent population of 70,000, including 20,000 registered residents and 50,000 migrants. It is located... More details about Sijing Town ++