A 130-Year-Old Clock Tower on Suzhou Creek Just Opened Its Gates to the City

The clock that taught a city to keep time

Before the Bund had its skyline, Suzhou Creek had its tower. The building now called the Taofen Building was raised between 1894 and 1895 as Huai Shi Tang, the central hall of St. John's University, one of the earliest Western-style universities in China. At its heart stands a three-storey clock tower, its bell cast in Boston, and when it began to chime it was the first large public clock of its kind in Shanghai.

The architecture is a meeting of two worlds, which is the whole point of the place. Blue brick walls are threaded with red-brick lines, a Chinese quadrangle plan wraps a courtyard, and the roof carries the curves of a traditional hall beneath its Western clock face. It is one of the earliest Chinese-Western blended buildings from the missionary-university era, and in 2019 it was named part of a National Key Cultural Relic Protection Site.

• •Built 1894–1895 as Huai Shi Tang, St. John's University
• •Shanghai's first large public clock tower, bell cast in Boston
• •Chinese quadrangle plan beneath a Western clock face
• •National Key Cultural Relic Protection Site since 2019

What you actually walk into

The tower sits inside the Changning campus of the East China University of Political Science and Law, right on the bank of Suzhou Creek. After a restoration that held to the principle of repairing it as it was, the building was formally reopened to the public on 5 November 2026, and the campus around it has followed it open.

Come for the tower, stay for the campus. This is one of the loveliest stretches of the Suzhou Creek greenway — the riverside path that threads past century-old faculty houses, a red-brick library and the water itself, all inside university grounds that you can now simply enter. The clock tower is the anchor, but the walk is the reward.

A campus that decided to stay open

What makes this more than a pretty building is the programming that now lives inside it. The university has turned the campus into a civic room it calls a 'city living room' on the creek. On the first weekend of each month a citizen lecture hall brings lawyers, judges and prosecutors to talk plainly about everyday law — neighbourhood disputes, family matters, fraud prevention, protecting minors. The following weekends offer free legal consultation and one-to-one expert clinics.

The red-brick library opens to the public on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, and a riverside book market gathers students, alumni and neighbours to browse old volumes in the creek breeze. On and around Constitution Day in early December the campus hosts a rule-of-law fair. None of it is staged for tourists; it is a working university that has chosen to share itself, which is exactly why it rewards a visitor.

• •Free citizen lecture hall on the first weekend of each month
• •Free legal consultation and expert clinics on following weekends
• •Red-brick library open Friday to Sunday
• •Riverside book market and Constitution Day fair

Let someone read the city aloud

A building like this rewards a wandering eye; a guided day rewards the context underneath. Pair a slow morning among the towers and the creek with one structured walk through the old city, and you leave with both the spontaneity and the story.

Before you go

Entry to the campus and the building is free and open to the public, so there is no ticket to buy and no window to miss. The campus sits along the Suzhou Creek greenway in the Changning district, an easy metro ride from the centre, and it joins directly onto the longer creek promenade that runs toward the Bund.

Treat it as a half-day rather than a photo stop. Walk the greenway, step into the library if the day is right, and let the lecture-hall schedule decide whether you time your visit to a weekend. Late autumn in Shanghai is mild and clear, which is the best season to be outside on the water — bring a layer for the breeze off the creek.

• •Free entry, no booking required
• •On the Suzhou Creek greenway, an easy metro ride from the centre
• •Weekends bring lectures, clinics and the book market
• •Mild, clear late-autumn weather for the riverside walk