Xujiahui Catholic Church

Xujiahui used to be one of the earliest places for Catholicism to spread in Shanghai. It could be traced back to Xu Guangqi, the senior official in Ming dynasty. He might also be the first Catholic in China. Then he invited a foreign priest Guo Jujing to start preaching in his hometown Xujiahui and since then there were more and more believers. Afterwards, the Society of Jesus established a church in Xujiahui named St.lgnatius Cathedral of Zi-ka-wei. As Catholics increased, the churchmen decided to build a new church, known as Xujiahu Catholic Church today, which is a typical French Gothic architecture of masonry structure with twin-spires. Two 57-meters-high bell towers face each other north and south with two crosses on the spires into the sky, which is amazing.