Qibao Ancient Town
Millennium-old canal town of stone bridges, timber shophouses and a sculptor's memorial hall.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to Qibao Ancient Town follows a Belgian cartoonist who set out in 1934 to draw a Chinese city he had never seen, and the lonely art student from this small water town who set him straight. Zhang Chongren, born here in Qibao and raised by French Jesuit priests, met Herge in Brussels and spent a year of Sundays teaching him Chinese brushwork, philosophy and the real conditions back home. Herge later wrote his friend directly into a famous story, an act of gratitude Zhang met with characteristic modesty.
This audio guide was created using AI.
Similar places
Ancient Town Fengjing
Canal-laced water town of Ming and Qing lanes, stone bridges and a cartoonist's ancestral museum.
Shanghai Zhujiajiao Ancient Town Tourist Zone
Canal-lined water town of stone bridges and Ming and Qing houses along boat-filled waterways.
Tou-Se-We Museum
Former Jesuit orphanage workshop where trained boys pioneered Western-style painting, carving and glasswork in China.
Shanghai Old Street
Restored Ming and Qing dynasty shopping lane of curling eaves, antique stalls, and old snack shops.
Yuyuan Old Street
Historic bazaar street of curved-eave shops and food stalls beside a centuries-old classical garden.
方塔园
Song dynasty brick and timber pagoda whose sealed reliquary yielded a monk's remains after nine centuries.