Culture

Culture serves as the eternal drive and support of a city’s development. Changning District’s rich history dates back to the Kaibao reign in the North Song Dynasty. Fahua Temple witnessed grand celebration ever since then and became the most important town of western Shanghai County in the Qianlong and Jiaqing reigns of the Qing Dynasty. Voluminous poems and articles were composed here by literators and scholars far and near in the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties. Nowadays, Changning provides modern and cultural amenities such as the Shanghai Film Center, the Shanghai Ballet School and the Shanghai Oil Painting & Sculpture Institute.

The District enjoys cultural and geographic advantages, and boasts socially cultural atmosphere. It was rewarded the “Cultural District of China” on account of its various cultural resources and the varieties and scopes of its culture events. The annual event of “Introduction of Books, Films and Arts to Communities” since 2002 offers about a hundred of cultural programs each year to the public. Folk arts such as shadow play, paper-cut and ink puffing in the Xinjing Area is well-known home and abroad. Besides, such brand programs as “Cultural Autumn in Hongqiao” has become renowned in Shanghai.