Atlas of China
Songjiang Tang Sutra Pillar 松江唐经幢Sōngjiāng Táng Jīngchuáng
National heritage site · Shanghai, Shanghai
- Time needed
- Under an hour
- Days to budget
- Half a day
- City
- Shanghai
- Region
- Shanghai
- Type
- Heritage
- Listed as
- National heritage site
About Songjiang Tang Sutra Pillar
This octagonal stone pillar, inscribed with a Buddhist dharani sutra and set up in 859 under the Tang dynasty, is regarded by Shanghai's cultural heritage authorities as the oldest structure standing above ground in the city. About 9.3 m tall in 21 stacked tiers, it is carved with crouching lions, coiled dragons, bodhisattvas and the Four Heavenly Kings, and was taken apart, repaired and reassembled in 1963–64 after long standing half-buried in an earth mound. It stands in the grounds of Zhongshan Primary School, which is not open to visitors.
How to get to Songjiang Tang Sutra Pillar
In Songjiang District, roughly an hour from central Shanghai on Metro Line 9 to Zuibaichi Park station, then about 20 minutes on foot to Zhongshan Primary School off Zhongshan East Road; the pillar stands well inside the school grounds, so it may not be visible from the gate.
Nearby
- Former French Concession 原法租界 30 km
Plane-tree streets, garden villas and shikumen lanes for Shanghai's best city walk - Shanghai Museum 上海博物馆 30 km
Ancient Chinese bronzes, ceramics, painting and jade, now shown at Shanghai Museum East - Yu Garden & City God Temple 豫园与城隍庙 30 km
A Ming-dynasty garden of rockeries and dragon walls beside a Taoist city temple - The Bund & Lujiazui Skyline 外滩与陆家嘴 40 km
1920s banks on one bank of the river, a sci-fi skyline on the other - Lujiazui 陆家嘴 40 km
Shanghai's skyline in a loop of river: spheres, a twisting tower and the Bund opposite
Also within 20 km: Fangta Park (Square Pagoda) 方塔园 (under 10 km), Zuibaichi Garden 醉白池 (under 10 km), Shanghai Film Park 上海影视乐园 (under 10 km), Guangfulin Culture Park 广富林文化遗址 (under 10 km), Shanghai Chenshan Botanical Garden 上海辰山植物园 (under 10 km), Yunbao Future City Art Town 云堡未来市 (under 10 km).
On the map
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