Shanghai Square Pagoda Garden

Shanghai Square Pagoda Garden

Shanghai Square Pagoda Garden is a national AAAA-level tourist attraction and a Shanghai municipal cultural heritage site.

The Square Pagoda Garden is located on the south side of Zhongshan East Road in Songjiang Town. It is a garden built in the early 1980s but designed with a classical style. The designer was Professor Feng Jizhong from the College of Architecture and Urban Planning at Tongji University.

Historical research shows that the Square Pagoda Garden is located right at the center of the ancient Huating County town from the Tang and Song dynasties. During the garden’s construction, at approximately two meters underground, a large number of relics from the Tang and Song periods were discovered, as well as remnants such as the eastern section of an old Tang dynasty market riverbank. Historical records indicate that major temples such as the Xingshengjiao Temple, Mingfu Huangmiao, and Guan Di Temple once stood here. During the Northern Song’s Xining era, the renowned Xingshengjiao Temple Pagoda, famous throughout southern China, was built here. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, along the northern side of the Square Pagoda, there extended east-west three notable streets honoring three prestigious Songjiang figures—Dong Wenmin, a famous Ming dynasty painter and calligrapher; Li Zhonghan, a renowned anti-Qing resistance general from the late Ming period; and Shen Wenluo, a celebrated Qing dynasty calligrapher.

Architectural Features

The Square Pagoda Garden centers around one of the most elegant ancient pagodas in southern China, a Song dynasty cultural relic, and incorporates a large nearby bamboo grove. It gathers a collection of historic buildings. Established in 1978 and preliminarily completed in 1981, the garden covers an area of 172.73 mu (approximately 11.5 hectares), with the Square Pagoda as its focal point. Various scenic elements are arranged around the pagoda:

To the south is a waterside pavilion for enjoying the reflections of the pagoda and shimmering water; to the west is a garden-within-a-garden dominated by nanmu wood; to the northeast stands the Hall of the Heavenly Queen Mother, relocated from Henan Road Bridge in Shanghai. Surrounding the pagoda are also the Song dynasty Wangxian Bridge, Ming dynasty screen wall, Beauty Peak, Five Elders Peak, and newly built classical-style corridors, boat houses, and halls.

On the north side of the Square Pagoda lies a uniquely designed granite-paved plaza where visitors can freely enjoy the scenery. Adjacent to the plaza’s eastern side is a granite-lined trench path, which serves as the main entrance from the east gate. This path is about 3 meters high, 5–6 meters wide, with stone walls on both sides that rise and fall, straighten and curve, creating a dynamic effect. This variation gives visitors the sense of entering the heart of the architectural ensemble, building anticipation before the dramatic reveal of the pagoda. At each turn along the base of the trench walls, foot-level lights are installed. When the garden is open at night, these lights emit a colorful glow, illuminating the stonework and enhancing the visitor experience.

The varying rhythms of the path draw visitors into a sense of the architectural whole, building anticipation that heightens the delightful surprise of the sudden appearance of the Square Pagoda. Along the lower sides of the stone walls in the sunken path, footlights are placed at every turn. When the garden is open in the evening, these footlights glow in a spectrum of colors, illuminating the stone walls and adding to the charm of the experience.

To showcase its natural, rugged, and whimsical character, in 1980 the garden also excavated a pond and built artificial hills. An S-shaped lake wraps around the southern side of the pagoda, stretching from west to east. With rippling waters reflecting the pagoda, the scenery is exceptionally beautiful. Scattered across the lake are clusters of lotus plants in square, round, and diamond shapes. In summer and autumn when the lotuses bloom, the lake becomes particularly picturesque. The southern lakeshore is an open, flat lawn gently sloping toward the water, lined with red maples. Viewed from north to south, the tung trees set off the glowing red maples, creating a crystal-clear view.

To the west of the Square Pagoda

stands a uniquely styled corridor that harmonizes with the pagoda and other historic buildings through classical design elements such as exposed wood grain, plain bracket sets, and square brick-and-stone pillars, evoking an antique charm. The corridor undulates naturally with the terrain of the earthen mounds, allowing visitors to fully admire the panoramic view of the Square Pagoda and the waterside pavilion scenery.

The eastern part of the Square Pagoda Garden features a vast bamboo forest covering 25 mu (approximately 1.7 hectares), a highlight of the garden. Upon entering from the east gate, visitors are greeted first by the bamboo forest and the pagoda tip peaking above it,

a highly captivating sight. This bamboo grove was expanded from private residential gardens of the past. Within the woods are stone-paved paths winding through serene nooks, a tranquil little pond, classic rectangular stone benches, and rare thatched huts in southern China. The bamboo species are diverse and uniquely shaped, including dozens of varieties such as phoenix tail bamboo, swan neck bamboo, purple bamboo, round bamboo, basket bamboo, and light bamboo.

From the wonder of ancient architecture to the beauty of natural scenery, from the elegance of the bamboo forest to the splendor of flowers, the entire Square Pagoda Garden presents a blend of order and harmony as well as natural charm. Between the main features like the Square Pagoda and the screen wall, no trees or flowers are planted, nor are recreational facilities installed. “All excess has been trimmed away to leave only refined simplicity,” highlighting the status of the cultural relics and demonstrating the elegance, simplicity, tranquility, and clarity of ancient Chinese culture. Supporting facilities in the garden, such as the teahouse, souvenir shop, reception room, and offices, all reflect the inherent style of a cultural heritage garden.

Named after the temple, it stands proudly at the center of the park, on the north shore of the garden lake. Built during the Xining Yuan years (1068–1094) of the Northern Song dynasty, it has stood for over 900 years. The pagoda is 42.65 meters tall with nine stories, modeled after the square-shaped brick pagodas of the Tang dynasty, hence commonly called the Square Pagoda. It is a brick-and-wood structure in a pavilion style, with the first-floor exterior wall of the brick body being 6 meters wide on each side and surrounded by a veranda. The structure tapers upward with each floor, and the outer brick wall is divided into three sections by brick pillars. The central bay features a door opening leading to a square chamber with wooden stairs connecting the floors. The top of the pagoda is an eight-meter-high spire composed of an inverted basin, a finial, and a precious bottle, supported by four iron chains extending from the tip to the eaves of the ninth floor, known as wind-resistant cables. Four copper bells, called “bird-scarers,” hang from the pagoda’s eaves, producing pleasant chimes in the wind to deter birds from nesting—a thoughtful feature. Climbing the Square Pagoda offers a sweeping view of the ancient city of Songjiang. The pagoda’s ability to stand for a millennium unscathed is inseparable from its scientifically ingenious construction. First, the pagoda contains a significant amount of wood—not only in the external staircases, balconies, eaves, and bracket sets, but also featuring three wooden bands on each floor inside the brick body. This method is generally prohibited in architecture because wood (which decays easily) is not allowed between structural materials like brick or stone, as it may compromise stability. Yet all the original Song dynasty wooden components in the pagoda remain uninfested by insects or rot, even free of termites—an extraordinary phenomenon. (During restoration, a Japanese professor was astonished by the wood’s durability, calling it an invaluable legacy from your ancestors.) During World War II, Japanese forces placed explosives near the pagoda but did not destroy it—another miracle. According to analysis by Professors Chen Congzhou and Lu Binjie from Tongji University, the wood must have undergone anti-corrosion and flexibility treatments, contributing to its thousand-year endurance and resilience to bombardment.

Secondly, during the 1974 restoration, it was discovered that the pagoda’s foundation was built using timber piles. By leveraging the wood’s characteristic of “lasting a thousand years when dry, a thousand years when wet, but only a few years when alternately dry and wet” (a carpenter’s proverb), the ancients successfully constructed the pagoda, enabling it to stand firm for a millennium with minimal tilt (only 53 centimeters northwest).

Furthermore, the pagoda’s foundation is uniquely tilted. Its southeast corner is higher, with the highest point at the northwest corner being 40 centimeters and the southeast only 20 centimeters. Standing inside the pagoda, one can clearly feel the sloped ground. Could this be an oversight by the builders? Actually, it reflects the wisdom of ancient craftsmen. As Songjiang faces the sea, summer brings frequent southeast winds and typhoons. Therefore, the foundation was intentionally tilted toward the southeast. Shen Kuo of the Northern Song dynasty wrote in his book Dream Pool Essays about a master builder who, in his later years, constructed a leaning pagoda. When questioned why, he replied: “We won’t see it, but in two hundred years, this pagoda will become perfectly upright and never tilt again.” Thus, the Square Pagoda is much like the tower built by that old carpenter—established based on extensive research into local climate, geology, pagoda form, materials, and craftsmanship. This explains the pagoda’s immense value.

The Square Pagoda is acclaimed for its “elegance”

in the southeast, showcasing exceptional artistry. The pagoda is characterized by its slender body and broad eaves, resembling a graceful maiden in a long dress. A poem by Huang Ting, a Songjiang poet of the Qing dynasty, praises the pagoda: “Of the thirty-six pagodas by the sea, none compare to the exquisite Square Pagoda.” These two lines vividly capture the pagoda’s artistic essence.

Address: No. 235, Zhongshan East Road, Songjiang District, Shanghai

Type: Garden / Historic Site / Ancient Pagoda

Rating: AAAA

Recommended Visit Duration: 1.5–2 hours

Phone: 021-57832621

Opening Hours:

May 1 – September 30: 5:30–17:30; October 1 – April 30 of the following year: 6:00–17:00.