Name

Xujiahui means "Xu family junction" - more precisely, "property of Xu family at the junction of two rivers". The "Xu family" refers to the family of Xu Guangqi (Hsü Kuang-ch'i; 1562-1633), China's most notable Catholic convert. Most of what is now Xujiahui was once the ancestral home of the Xu family. Baptized by famed Italian Jesuit, Matteo Ricci, Xu Guangqi and his descendants donated large plots of land to the Catholic Church, including the site of