Built after the opium wars, the St. Ignatius Cathedral of Shanghai is one of the most beautiful churches in the Far East. The parish consists today of over 2000 members.
The grand cathedral with twin brick spires was built in 1910 by the Jesuits who were the first Europeans to settle in Shanghai. The cathedral is dedicated to their founder, St. Ignatius of Loyola. The design was by English architect, William Doyle, and a French Jesuit order constructed the church between 1905 and 1910. The church has a Gothic architectural style and at the time of its completion was the first European style building in Shanghai. The 64 columns are made of stone quarried from the Jin Mountain in Suzhou. It has 19 altars including one that was elaborately carved and shipped from Paris. The church can hold a congregation of 2,500 worshippers.
The St. Ignatius cathedral was vandalized in 1966 during the Cultural Revolution and the stained glass windows destroyed. The church underwent extensive restoration and opened again for worship in 1978. The first Chinese mass was celebrated in 1989 and new stained glass windows with Chinese characters and icons have been recently installed.

This multi-denominational church was used by European and American residents in Shanghai as their neighbourhood place of worship. It is the largest protestant church in the city.
The Shanghai Community Church is located in the Hengshan Road in the Southwestern part of the city. The locality is the preferred residential area of foreigners and expatriates. The congregation started as a small group of Americans in 1920 whose church was in Dongu Road. As the number of Protestants from different countries in Shanghai increased, funds were raised to build the present building. The church was completed in 1925. The red brick structure has an architectural style of Anglican churches in England. There are corridors, aisles and a pointed vault within the church.
At first, the congregation in the new church consisted of European and American expatriates who made Shanghai their home. Later, Chinese converts to Christianity, who came from a high social strata, worshipped along with the Europeans. Service was conducted by European priests until 1949 when Chinese priests took complete charge of the service. Today, the service and Sunday school for children are in Chinese. The English service and Sunday school sessions at the church are for foreign passport holders only. The church has hosted many foreign heads of state, including former US president Jimmy Carter, since 1983.

The St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church was the chief place of worship for the Russian Diaspora who fled to Shanghai from Vladivostok and flourished here between the two World Wars. Today, there is a revival of worship and services are held in the loft.
The Russian population in Shanghai consisted of refugees who fled their homeland after the Bolshevik Revolution. They established a small community called little Russia in the city. The St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church was built by the exiles at the former French Concession known as Rue Corneille. The location was later renamed as Gaolan Lu. The structure had the traditional onion shaped domes of orthodox churches of Russia. General Glebov, a prominent Russian exile, led the initiative to build a church for the Russian refugees. It was consecrated in 1937 in honour of St. Nicholas and the deposed Tsar Nicholas II.
The church was closed for worship when Europeans fled Shanghai after the Chinese Civil War. It was ransacked and damaged during the Cultural Revolution. The building was converted into a washing machine factory and later, a laundry. In 1994, the St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church was declared a city level cultural relic. The upper floor was leased by the government to a French restaurant called Ashanti and the lower floor houses a Spanish restaurant. During the 2010 Shanghai Expo, the loft of the church was re-consecrated. From May 2010, weekly divine services have been held for visiting Russian Orthodox worshippers.

The St. Peters Catholic Church is located in the French Concession of Shanghai. Foreign residents of the city worship at the church and masses are celebrated in Chinese, English, German, Korean and French.
The St. Peters Catholic Church was built by the French Jesuits for the students of the Aurora University. The university was founded by a Chinese Jesuit priest, Fr. Ma Xiangbo and members of the Society of Jesus from France. The University remained a Jesuit institution till the Chinese revolution. After the Cultural Revolution, the Jesuits were driven out and the building became a culture centre. Recently, the old building was demolished and a modern church was built in 1995 to house the congregation.
The original church was built in Byzantine architectural style. It had a central dome and five chapels. Religious ceremonies in a small part of the old building were revived in 1984. The Culture Centre relocated and returned the church to the diocese. The new structure has two floors. The church is on the second floor and chapels are on the ground floor.
St. Peters Catholic Church remains one of the principal places of worship for catholic expatriates in Shanghai.

The Fazangjiang Temple is one of the four important Buddhist temples in Shanghai. The others being the Jade Buddha, the Longhua and the Jing An Temples. It is a major city attraction because of its unique architecture.
The Fazagjiang Temple, located in the Old Town was built in 1924 by the Tiantai Ancestor called the Xingci Master. It occupies an area of 0.4 hectares. It took five years to build and is unique because unlike other temples it has a tower. The entrance door is located in the west unlike other Buddhist temples where worshippers enter from the South. Some parts of the structure have architecture with a unique art deco resemblance.
The Fazangjiang Temple recently underwent extensive restoration. New doors were installed in the main hall. A large modern statue of the Sakyamuni is now found in the hall sitting on top of a lily. There are two gilded walls with images of Arhats. Other walls have golden sculptures of the Buddhist trinity. There is a small shrine dedicated to the God of the Underworld in Buddhism, Dizang Wang.
The modern Fazangjiang Temple is an active place of worship thronging with worshippers, visitors and black robed chanting monks.

Known as the School Palace, the Confucian Temple was once the highest institution of learning in Shanghai. It is dedicated to Confucius, the great Chinese thinker and founder of the Confucian culture and code of conduct.
The Shanghai Confucian Temple was built between 1368 and 1398. It has 28 buildings covered with exquisite stone carvings. There are three well preserved courtyards surrounded by halls that were once used as classrooms. There are carved stone bridges built across tranquil ponds within the courtyards. The main part of the complex used to worship Confucius is the Dacheng Hall. A large bell weighing 1.5 tons is located at the southeast part of the main hall. A bronze statue of Confucius stands in front of the main door of Dacheng Hall.
In the Northeast part of the temple, is a second hand book market. The market was built like the book houses that thrived during the reign of the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Every Sunday, book traders come to buy, sell and exchange old and rare books at the venue. A temple fair is held at the end of the year including a bell tolling ceremony, contests for young people and performances by folk dancers.

The Peach Garden Mosque is the largest active mosque in Shanghai. It was here that the Shanghai Muslim Association was founded.
The building called the Mosque of the Small Peach Garden was founded in 1917. The present building dates back to 1927. The structure was constructed with donations from the Muslim community. The foundations were laid in 1925 and the building was completed two years later.
The peach garden Mosque has an inner courtyard surrounded by outbuildings. The main hall can hold several hundred worshippers. It has two green cupolas at each end. The center has a pavilion with a crescent emblem. Only male worshippers are allowed in the main hall and women are allowed in a separate smaller hall. It has a minaret for the Islamic call for prayer. The building has a West Asian Islamic architectural style.
Today, the Peach Garden Mosque is the headquarters of the Shanghai Islamic Association. The municipal government has declared the building as a protected cultural relic. The structure suffered damage during the Cultural Revolution but has now been restored. Visitors can see the mosque between 8 am to 6 pm on all days of the week. The building is crowded on Fridays which is the important day of prayer for the Muslim Community.

The Holy Trinity Cathedral was the principal place of worship for British expatriates who flocked to Shanghai after victory in the Opium wars. Recently, extensive repairs were undertaken and the interiors have been restored to its former grandeur.
Construction of the Holy Trinity Church was started in 1866 and completed in 1869. Sir George Gilbert Scott, the famous Neo Gothic architect formulated the design and the construction was supervised by his student William Kidner. He changed the original plans to reduce the cost of construction and to seat an increasing congregation. The organ installed in 1914, was at the time, the biggest in Asia. There was a school for boys attached to the church where the author J.G.Ballard was a student. He recounts his childhood days in Shanghai and describes the cathedral in the novel, Empire of the Sun. The Shanghai Scout movement of Baden Powell began in the cathedral building.
The building was damaged during the Cultural Revolution and the spire destroyed. It was converted into a cinema. A stage was erected and the brickwork painted over. In 2006, the building was returned to the church. With funds received from the UK and America, the Chinese architectural design company Zhang Ming restored the interiors and installed new carved teak pews.

Hongkew Methodist Church, also known as Jingling Church, is an American Missionary institution in Shanghai. It is housed in a red-brick building that was constructed in 1923. The structure features familiar Western-style architecture and receives more than 2000 prayers each week.

Hongde Church stands along Doulun road, a pedestrian street famous for its shops and touristic spots. This street is a perfect example of the 20th century architectural style of Shanghai, of which Hongde Tang is a notable part. Built in 1928, in a fusion of Chinese and Western styles, this Christian site is the only church of Shanghai with temple-like features. This gorgeous building is a famous spot for newlyweds to take wedding pictures.