| Sheshan | |||||||||||||
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 Sheshan, its observatory, and Our Lady of Sheshan Cathedral | |||||||||||||
| Chinese | 佘山 | ||||||||||||
| Literal meaning | She Hill(s) | ||||||||||||
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Sheshan, formerly known as Zose, is a pair of hills in Songjiang District in western Shanghai, China. The two hills are distinguished as East and West Sheshan, although the more important western hill is also called Sheshan on its own. East Sheshan has an elevation of 100.8 m (331 ft) and West Sheshan has an elevation of 118 m (387 ft), it is the highest point in Shanghai, 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, 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 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 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. In addition to scientific equipment of the modern era, it displays a replica of a Han dynasty 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.
Further reading
Coomans Thomas 高曼士, Sheshan jiaotang xunzong: jianzhu, chaosheng, lishi tujing 佘山教堂寻踪: 朝圣建筑和历史途径 [The Basilica of Sheshan: pilgrimage architecture and historical landscape]. (Kaifang de Shanghai chengshi jianzhu shi congshu 开放的上海城市建筑史丛书, 3). Shanghai: Tongji University Press, 2023, 303 p., 289 Figs. ISBN 978-7-5765-0816-1
See also
References
31°05′35″N 121°11′35″E / 31.093°N 121.193°E