Sheshan, known in

Shanghainese The Shanghainese language, also known as the Shanghai dialect, or Hu language, is a variety of Wu Chinese spoken in the central districts of the city of Shanghai and its surrounding areas. It is classified as part of the Sino-Tibetan langua ...

as Zose, is a pair of

hill A hill is a landform that extends above the surrounding terrain. It often has a distinct summit, and is usually applied to peaks which are above elevation compared to the relative landmass, though not as prominent as Mountain, mountains. Hills ...

s in

Songjiang District Songjiang is a suburban district (formerly a county) of Shanghai. It has a land area of and a population of 1,909,713 (2020). Owing to a long history, Songjiang is known as the cultural root of Shanghai. Songjiang Town, the urban center of the ...

in western

Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...

, China. The two hills are distinguished as East and , although the more important western hill is also called Sheshan on its own. East Sheshan has an elevation of and West Sheshan has an elevation of , it is the highest point in

, there is a small valley between them. The area around the two hills is a forest park.

Basilica

It is surmounted by the ''Our Lady of China'' Catholic church,

Sheshan Basilica The Basilica of Holy Mary, the Help of Christians (Latin: ''Basilicæ de Nostra Domina Mariæ Auxiliatricis Christianorum'') also known as the ''National Shrine of Our Mother of Sheshan'' () is a Roman Catholic Marian shrine in Shanghai, China. I ...

, which was built there between 1922 and 1936 following the establishment of a chapel in 1867, soon replaced by a first church in 1871-1873 by French

Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

missionaries. Services in the church are held in Chinese and Latin. The road to the top of Sheshan hill represents the stations of the cross

Via Dolorosa The (Latin for 'Sorrowful Way', often translated 'Way of Suffering'; ; ) is a processional route in the Old City of Jerusalem. It represents the path that Jesus took, forced by the Roman soldiers, on the way to his crucifixion. The winding rou ...

(The Way of Suffering) that Christ took to his crucifixion. Every May pilgrims flock to the chapel and the holy road by the hundreds.

Observatory

The hill also houses an observatory founded in 1900 by Jesuits, the

Sheshan Observatory The Sheshan Observatory () is an observatory on Sheshan Hill in Shanghai. History It was built by French Jesuits around 1899 and is one of the oldest astronomical observatory in China (it also hosts one of China's oldest astronomical telesco ...

. In addition to scientific equipment of the modern era, it displays a replica of a

Han dynasty The Han dynasty was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China (202 BC9 AD, 25–220 AD) established by Liu Bang and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–206 BC ...

earthquake monitoring device, consisting of a jar with dragon heads mounted around the outside and a pendulum inside. Each dragon has a steel ball in its mouth. When an earthquake occurred, the pendulum would swing, knock a dragon causing its mouth to open and a ball to drop out thereby indicating the quake's direction. The observatory has been renovated and reopened as a museum in May 2023.

Transportation

Sheshan is in the vicinity of Sheshan Station on Line 9 of the

Shanghai Metro The Shanghai Metro (; Shanghainese: ''Zaon6he5 Di6thiq7'') is a rapid transit system in Shanghai, operating urban and suburban transit services to 14 of its 16 List of township-level divisions of Shanghai, municipal districts and to the neighb ...

References

Landforms of Shanghai Hills of China {{Shanghai-geo-stub

Basilica

Observatory

Transportation

Further reading

See also

References