Jinshan District 金山区

Setting and landscape

The land, which the district government says formed about 6,400 years ago, is low and flat, rising slightly from north-west to south-east, and cut by a web of channels fed by water from Zhejiang and the tides of the Huangpu. At Caojing (漕泾) an ancient sand ridge, the gangshen (冈身), is described as the only surviving ancient shoreline site in Shanghai. Three islands, Dajinshan (大金山), Xiaojinshan (小金山) and Fushan (浮山), lie in the sea 6.2 kilometres south-east of the mainland; Dajinshan, at 103.70 metres, is the highest ground in Shanghai and keeps native vegetation that has disappeared from the city's mainland.

History

Jinshan County was carved out of Lou County (娄县) in 1726, with its seat in the walled garrison town of Jinshanwei (金山卫); from 1796 the seat stayed at Zhujing (朱泾). The county moved from Jiangsu to Shanghai in November 1958 and became a district in 1997. In September 1937 Japanese reinforcements for the Battle of Shanghai came ashore here; the landing site is in Jinshanwei town.

What to see

Fengjing Ancient Town (枫泾古镇), a water town of more than 1,500 years at the meeting point of Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang, is a China Historical and Cultural Town and was named one of the New Eight Views of Shanghai in 2009. Among the town's 30-odd sights are the ancestral home of the painter Cheng Shifa (程十发), a museum of the cartoonist Ding Cong (丁聪) and the town's three bridges. Donglin Temple (东林寺) in Zhujing was founded in 1308; its old main hall was listed by Shanghai in 1987, and the temple, reopened in 2007 after restoration, is now a 57-metre hill shaped like a giant Buddha.

On the coast, Jinshan City Beach (金山城市沙滩), Shanghai's first 4A seaside resort, runs along a 1.5-kilometre promenade beside Jinshanzui Fishing Village (金山嘴渔村), which the district government calls the best-preserved fishing village on the Shanghai coast, with old fishermen's houses, a fishing-gear hall and a Mazu hall.

Food and local products

Fengjing braised pork hock (枫泾丁蹄) and traditional Shanghai yellow wine brewing both joined Shanghai's first intangible heritage list in 2007. Zhangyan (张堰) keeps its own style of cooking, Jinshan Yan cuisine (金山堰菜), dating from the late Qing; its seven core dishes include eel shreds dressed with sizzling oil (响油鳝丝) and red-braised bundled pork (红烧扎肉). The making of Luxiang white-dragon cake (吕巷白龙糕), which the district links to Jiangnan rice culture, is also among Jinshan's items on the Shanghai heritage list. Jinshan farmers' painting (金山农民画), begun in 1972 and drawing on indigo cloth, stove murals and paper-cutting, has its own academy (金山农民画院) in Zhujing.

Highlights

• Fengjing Ancient Town 枫泾古镇: Water town with over 1,500 years of history, named among the New Eight Views of Shanghai in 2009.
• Donglin Temple 东林寺: Founded in 1308 at Zhujing; old hall listed by Shanghai in 1987; restored as a 57-metre hill in the shape of a Buddha.
• Jinshan City Beach 金山城市沙滩: Shanghai's first 4A seaside resort, with a 1.5-kilometre promenade.
• Dajinshan Island 大金山: At 103.70 metres the highest point in Shanghai, with native vegetation lost elsewhere in the city.
• Fengjing braised pork hock 枫泾丁蹄: Its making entered Shanghai's first intangible heritage list in 2007.