Ancient Cultural Relics
2 min readSt.Ignatius Cathedral，Shanghai，also referred to as Xujiahui Cathedral，is a Gothic Roman Catholic cathedral，located on Puxi Road，in Xujiahui，The cathedral is attended by over 2000 people every Sunday.Designed by English architect William Dowdall，and built by French Jesuits from 1905 to 1910，the Cathedral was known as “the grandest cathedral in the Far East”.It can accommodate 2，500 worshippers at the same time.
In 1966，at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution，Red Guards vandalized the cathedral，tore down its spires and ceiling，and smashed its roughly 300 square metres of stained glass.For the next ten years the building served as a state-owned grain warehouse.
In 1978 the cathedral was reopened，and the spires were restored in the early 1980s.
The building’s restoration is continuing.In 2002，Wo Ye，a Beijing-born artist，and Father Thomas Lucas，a Jesuit from the University of San Francisco，began a five year project to replace the cathedral’s stained glass windows.The new windows incorporate Chinese characters and iconography，and they were finished in time for the 2010 World’s Fair in Shanghai.
Tianzifang is an arts and crafts enclave that has developed from a renovated residential area in the French Concession area.It comprises a neighborhood of labyrinthine alleyways off Taikang Road，and is therefore also referred to as Taikang Road.Tianzifang is known for small craft stores，coffee shops，trendy art studios and narrow alleys.It has become a popular tourist destination in Shanghai，and an example of preservation of local Shikumen architecture，with some similarities to Xintiandi.
Though all the businesses sell trendy foreign goods，the area does not look very beautiful-electricity cables are still strung overhead，and air conditioners are on the outside of the buildings.The district is different from Xintiandi，another Shikumen redevelopment in the vicinity，in that it has managed to preserve its residential outlook，And that adds its appeal.
