Temples & Gardens

The quiet half of the city, and the half that charges

Shanghai is not an old city by Chinese standards — it was a walled county town of no great importance until the 1840s — so its temples and gardens are fewer and smaller than Beijing's or Suzhou's. What it has is worth seeing, and it is nearly all ticketed.

The four

• Yu Garden — the classical garden, from 1559, and the only substantial one in the centre. ⚠️ The garden and the bazaar around it are two different things and the bazaar is free.
• Jade Buddha Temple — a working monastery built around two Burmese jade figures. ⚠️ The jade Buddha hall is a second, separate ticket and visitors regularly miss it.
• Jing'an Temple — gilded roofs directly beneath office towers. Largely a modern reconstruction, and the famous view of it is from the street, for nothing.
• Longhua Temple — the oldest and largest complex, well out from the centre, with a tenth-century pagoda. ⚠️ The pagoda cannot be climbed.

How to behave in a working temple

All four are functioning places of worship with monastic communities, not monuments. Dress modestly, do not photograph people at prayer, walk around the outside of a hall rather than through someone's devotions, and step over the raised threshold rather than on it.

Incense is usually sold at the gate and using it is normal for visitors — three sticks, lit, held at the forehead, placed in the burner.

Reservations and closing days

⚠️ Chinese museums and increasingly temples work on advance reservation. Check before travelling across the city, particularly for anything on a weekend or a holiday.

⛔ Chinese New Year is the exception to everything: temples are packed to capacity, Longhua rings its bell at midnight, and Yu Garden's lantern festival is one of the busiest places in the country.