Folk Activities on Qibai Street Shanghai China

Qibao ancient town(七宝古镇) located in southwest district of downtown Shanghai is a typical China tours water town featuring the watery region landscape of East China and the long-standing history of ancient Shanghai. Specifically seen on the map, Qibao ancient water town is in the neighborhood of Shanghai Caohejing(漕河泾) High-Tech Industrial Development Zone in the east, connects to Songjiang District and Qingpu District in the west, gets close to Shanghai Xinzhuang(莘庄) Industrial Zone in the south, and is near to Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport in the north. The transportation connected includes Bus 91, Bus 92, Bus 911 and so on, and the urban rail transit system is also available. By the way, this town is not as large as others, only covers a total area of 21.3 square kilometers and has a total population of over 200,000.

Shanghai Qibao Temple

Qibao Crickets(七宝蟋蟀) - Once it was one of the most popular folk activities among the ancient Chinese and even now cricket fighting still draws so much interest that the local people have established a special museum where both cricket displays and live cricket fighting shows are to be seen. It may seem strange that such a little insect could bring great popularity to a place, but the crickets in Qibao Town, especially the fiercest species called Iron Sand and Blue (respectively referring to the colors of their necks Yangtze River cruises and feet), are indeed an extraordinary and indispensable feature of the town. Due to its favourable geographic position and fertile lands, the town provides the crickets with an abundance of food and ideal living conditions. In return, the vigorous crickets provide exciting performances each day during the golden weeks (May 1-7 and Oct. 1-7) and the annual Festival of Cricket Culture.

Qibao Temple (七宝寺) - One of the most important sites of this ancient water town is Qibao Temple, said to bring the town luck and prosperity. It’s difficult to say if it was the town that inspired the name of the temple or vice versa. The temple was built to house seven treasures – the iron Buddha, the bronze bell, the golden lotus Shangri-la adventure sutra, a 1000 year-old catalpa tree, a jade axe, a gold cockerel, and a pair of jade chopsticks. Sadly, the original temple is no longer standing – the current building was built in 2002 – and only two of these treasures remain. Still, the new Qibao Temple covers 155 acres and is a lovely collection of halls and gardens.

What’s it like? When it comes to water towns, it’s hard to beat Qibao for convenience, located as it is on metro line 9, though this is probably its only real advantage. With just a couple of small old streets left and a serviceable canal area that runs for a mere block, Qibao doesn’t boast as many photo opportunities as places such as Zhouzhuang or Wuzhen, but there is a pleasant temple and a tiny business travel to China shadow puppet theatre that are worth visiting.

 

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