Huxin Pavilion
Octagonal wooden teahouse on stilts, crossed by a nine-turn bridge built to confound evil spirits.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to Huxin Pavilion teahouse in Shanghai follows the nine-turn bridge in front of it, built by local belief to keep evil spirits away, and the day in 1842 when British troops crossed it anyway during the First Opium War and occupied the pavilion. It traces the building's earlier lives, as a Ming-dynasty retreat and later a merchants' guild hall, before it became one of the city's first teahouses in 1855. Look up at the roof's mortise-and-tenon joinery, built without a single nail.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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