Shanghai | Xujiahui Library: The earliest existing modern library in Magic City

| Xujiahui Library: The earliest existing modern library in Magic City. If Xujiahui is the cultural vein of Shanghai, this description is not an exaggeration. Here, not only is the first school of Western learning in the East - Xuhui Public School, but also the earliest existing modern library in Shanghai, which was established in 1847, the Xujiahui Library. The library was initially built by the Shanghai Catholic Jesuit Society, for the collection of various books from the East and West. The existing two white brick and wood structures - ✅The south building was built in 1867, originally the residence of the priests, also known as the Godfather Building. After several renovations, it has become the current four-story sloping roof, with an external corridor-style building. Now it is a branch of the Shanghai Library, entering the corridor, facing the LED screen, playing a documentary about the library. The reading room is equipped with dark green retro desk lamps, creating a quiet and warm atmosphere. It's not as open and bright as other branches of the Shanghai Library, but it has a unique sense of historical heaviness. ✅The north building was built in 1897, a two-story double-sloped roof building. This is the library of that year, also known as the 'Huitang Stone Room', the Big Book Room or the Scripture Library. The design of the library fully reflects the essence of the combination of Chinese and Western. 👉🏻The upper floor is the Western book library, the layout design imitates the Vatican Library; 👉🏻The lower floor is the Chinese book library, adopting the style of Ningbo Tianyi Pavilion, connected by a large open space with six small open spaces, which coincides with the saying in the 'Book of Changes' that 'Heaven gives birth to water, and the earth forms it'. 🎈In the 1990s, when the Xujiahui area was building the Metro Line 1, the original plan was to demolish this north building. Many well-known literati at the time have called for the preservation of this building of great historical significance, finally decided to transform a small room on the outermost layer of the library into a white arched pedestrian passage, and the more than 170-year-old Xujiahui Library still stands, still immersed in the lingering fragrance of books. ------------ 🔆Xujiahui Library Shanghai Library Xujiahui Library 📍Address: No. 80, Caoxi North Road, Xuhui District, Shanghai