Ancient Temple at the Heart of Modern Shanghai
Walk out of Jing'An Temple Metro Station and you step directly into the grounds of Jing'an Temple, a Buddhist temple whose name translates as Temple of Peace and Tranquility. The temple is said to have been built in 247 CE, making it more than seventeen centuries old. Inside the temple complex, you'll find the quiet counterweight to the shopping malls and office towers that surround it—a place where the city's relentless pace feels distant. The temple remains an active place of worship and meditation, and visitors are welcome to explore its halls and courtyards.
Museums and Cultural Landmarks
The Shanghai Natural History Museum sits on Beijing West Road near its own metro station on Line 1, and offers a systematic walk through the natural world: fossils, minerals, animal specimens, and the ecological systems that sustain life. It opens at 08:50 and closes at 17:15 (closed Mondays except during Golden Weeks), giving you a full day's worth of galleries if you want it, or a focused afternoon if you prefer. Standard adult tickets cost ¥30.
Two sites speak to Shanghai's 20th-century history. The Former residence of Chairman Mao Tse Tung sits in traditional style between the Kerry Centre and the Shangri-la hotel—a small, free museum that preserves the humble home of Mao during his early Communist Party days. The contrast between his modest dwelling and the luxury shopping mall now surrounding it is part of the story itself. The Shanghai Exhibition Centre, built in the 1950s and once the tallest building in Shanghai at 110 metres, still stands as a landmark of that era.
Art and Spectacle
The Shanghai Acrobatics Show takes place inside the Ritz-Carlton hotel building at 1376 West Nanjing Lu. A 90-minute performance packs the impressive acts of a Chinese circus into a single evening—the calibre is high from the opening moments, so arrive on time. Tickets cost around ¥150 and are best purchased in advance, especially for weekend performances.
Parks and Public Spaces
Jing'an Park offers a genuine slice of local life. Walk its paths past the lake and you'll often encounter older residents practising traditional dances. If you play Chinese board games—xiangqi (Chinese chess) or weiqi (Go)—head to the Southeast corner where informal matches happen regularly throughout the day. The Jing'an Sculpture Park, located at the crossing of Beijing Lu West and Shimen Lu, provides another outdoor perspective on the district.
At No. 1056 Wanrong Road stands the EVA Unit-01 statue, a free, permanent landmark standing 25.06 metres tall. Modelled after the iconic mecha from the Japanese anime Neon Genesis Evangelion, it holds the Guinness World Record as the largest anime sculpture in the world and draws visitors simply passing through the neighbourhood to stop and look up.
Planning Your Visit
Jing'an rewards both purposeful itineraries and wandering. You might begin at the temple, spend an afternoon at the natural history museum, catch the acrobatics in the evening, and let the parks and sculpture fill the spaces between. The district sits centrally in Shanghai, well-served by metro lines 2 and 7. Start planning around what moves you—the temple's stillness, the museum's comprehensiveness, the acrobatics' energy—and build outward from there.