Shanghai is the city where you cannot bypass. I stayed in a hotel next to the Bund or Waitan for one night before I went to Zhoushan. A week after, I returned from Qingdao in early morning for my planned departure to New York in the evening. On the high-speed train to Shanghai, I realized that I had 7 hour of free time in Shanghai before leaving to New York. I was quickly searching for a place to kill my time, and found that there is an ancient town, Qibao, not far from the center city of Shanghai.
Qibao township is located in the southwestern suburbs of Shanghai, only 18 kilometers away from the center city. Its formation can be traced back to the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period (A.D. 907 to 979 ), chartered in the Later Han Dynasty, and has begun to take shape in the Northern Song Dynasty (A.D 960-1126). Thanks to the two main rivers of Puhuitang River and Henglijing River crossing in the town, and the well developed water transportation system, the town started to expanding and thriving in Qing Dynasty (A.D 1644-1911) and has been prosperous until now. Its name is said to be derived from the local temple Qibao Temple. Qibao is different from other ancient towns in the southern part of China, and its ancient streets have preserved the “非””-shaped layout formed in the Northern Song Dynasty, that is, its main commercial streets are perpendicular to the river, not parallel to the river. One of the famous local special products is crickets. According to the locals, the crickets produced in Qibao are powerful and aggressive, belonging to the high end of group; other special products include handicrafts, home cloth, calligraphy and painting, as well as leisure snacks, pickled meat, square cake, Qibao mutton and so on. There are teahouses with a long history in the town, where you can enjoy tea while listening to local operas, as well as interesting sauce gardens, pawn shops, wine shops, micro-carving halls, cricket cottages, memorial halls for cultural celebrities such as Zhang Chongren, etc. Unfortunately, I only had limited time, so I could only go someplace where I most interested in. Among the many things, I was impressed by its residential architecture, which seems to be mostly Hui-style. Qibao Temple is indeed very stylish, and the town deserves to use it.
上海是你无法绕过的城市。在去舟山之前，我在外滩或外滩附近的酒店住了一晚。一周后，我一大早从青岛回到上海，准备晚上出发去纽约。在开往上海的高铁上，我意识到在出发去纽约之前，我在上海还有 7 个小时的空闲时间。急忙找地方打发时间，我发现离上海市中心不远的地方有一个古镇叫七宝镇。
七宝镇位于上海西南部近郊，距离上海市中心仅有18公里。其形成可以追溯到五代十国时期 (公元907 to 979年)，成于后汉， 到北宋时已初具规模。得益于蒲汇塘河与横沥泾河两条主干河道在该镇交叉而过，加上当时发达的漕运条件，该镇自明清两代开始， 一直繁荣到现在。其名称据说来源于当地的寺庙七宝寺。七宝其他江南古镇不同，它的老街至今保存着北宋是形成的“非”字型布局，即其主要商业街与河垂直， 不是沿河平行。当地的著名特产之一是蟋蟀，据说七宝产的蟋蟀勇猛好斗，属于上品； 其他的特产包括 手工艺品、土布、书画， 还有闲情小吃，糟肉、方糕、七宝羊肉等等。镇上有历史悠久的茶馆， 可便品茶边听戏， 和趣味十足的酱园、典当行、酿酒铺、微雕馆、蟋蟀草堂、文化名人张充仁等人的纪念馆等等。我的时间有限， 只能随性所至，走到哪就算哪。其中印象最深的是它的民居建筑风格， 似乎多为徽式。七宝寺确是很有气派，该镇不枉用它来作地名。
The Bund, Shanghai 上海外滩
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Qibao town 七宝镇
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