JIADING with a history that stretches back over 800 years has inspired countless legends and folk tales through the generations.

Behind the stories are Jiading's famous landmarks - rivers, bridges and gardens - and even its unique agricultural produce.

These captivating stories of historical characters display the varied lives of ordinary people, the origin of some natural scenes, our ancestors' lifestyle and their good wishes toward folk culture and nature.

Let us expand our knowledge of the district with these interesting folk tales, and explore the history and culture of Jiading from a different angle.

The Cinderella of Xinjing's straw shoes started

A girl named Huang Maocao lived in Xinjing Village of Jiading District long, long time ago. In Chinese, her given name means straw. This was not her original name, but as she was thin and short and had yellow hair, just like yellow straw growing at a pond, local villagers liked to call her by this name. As the time passed, Maocao became her formal name.

Huang was an orphan and in her childhood herded cattle for a landlord. She was so poor that when she reached marriage age, she did not even own a pair of good shoes.

One day, from morning till evening, Huang was sitting at the riverside with an old cow. As darkness fell, she was still sitting there, feeling depressed about her misfortune.

Suddenly, the old cow raised its head and mooed. It went over to Huang with some yellow straw in its mouth, put the straws at her feet and licked her feet lightly.

Huang stroked the cow gently. When she looked up, she saw the yellow straws around her waving in the wind, just like it was nodding to her. She suddenly understood what to do - to wear a pair of shoes with the straws the cow had brought to her.

Later she got married. She went to her husband's home on their wedding day wearing this pair of shoes. Strangely enough, from that day on she suddenly became beautiful - her hair turned black and her face became white with a touch of red.

Villagers kept appreciating her beauty and her special straw shoes. Local girls started to learn weaving shoes from Huang, not only for their own use, but also for selling to outsiders. The village of straw shoes soon became famous.

Later, the local county magistrate who often oppressed his people learned about the reputation of the village. To win the favor of his superior, the magistrate ordered Huang to weave a pair of straw shoes to be given to the governor as a birthday present.

However, the beautiful shoes mildewed immediately after the governor put them on. The governor became extremely angry and dismissed the county magistrate from his position. Learning this news, local villagers were all happy and praised Huang's talent, as they called her "the faery of straw weaving."

From that time Jiading's straw weaving have gained widespread fame and is today considered a special folk art. The district's various straw woven products, such as shoes, bags and hats, are especially popular among foreign visitors.

Proud old gingko protects the poor

In Lujia Village of Fangtai Town, Jiading District, a gingko tree stands over 20 meters tall and four or five men with outstretched arms can barely embrace it. Furthermore, local people say the tree has divine properties that protect poor people.

Many years ago in Waigang Town, about 5 kilometers away from the old gingko, a family was so poor who could not even afford a stool to make fire before the cooking range. But one day, the homeowner suddenly heard a noise under his cooking range and to his astonishment he saw tree roots growing from the earth. The roots kept growing in front of the cooker until they were as tall as a chair. The householder was happy and sat on them while making fire.

Several days later, the householder found that the reflection of a waving gingko tree had appeared in the water of his well. He didn't know whether it was a sign of fortune or misfortune and asked someone to predict the future for him. Eventually, he was told the reflection belonged to the divine gingko tree in Lujia Village that was looking after him.

The happy householder then brought with him a jug of wine and walked more than 5 kilometers to worship the ginkgo in Lujia Village every year.

One year, he forgot the jug under the tree. When he returned again, he found the jug had turned into gold. He was so happy and told a tourist nearby: "Look, my jug has turned into gold. Isn't it strange?"

However, the tourist told him: "Wake up, man. It's just a straw shoe, not a golden jug. You're going nuts for money."

But the poor guy didn't believe this. He was convinced that the "tree god" blinded anyone else so they couldn't see the golden jug. Therefore, he went back home with the jug carefully and happily.

In fact, the "tree god" did exist, and she was a very beautiful girl. She often sat on the top of the tree, where she could see all the families living dozens of miles around. When she saw the poor family in Waigang Town, she felt sorry for them and kicked the tree. Then, the tree roots grew very quickly toward that house and became a fire-making stool. And when she saw the householder coming to the tree to worship her every year sincerely, she turned his jug into gold.

As time passed by, the tree became tall. It was said that during the war against the Japanese invaders, a group of Japanese soldiers came to the town and wanted to chop the tree down. When they tried to chop some branches off, the leaves suddenly rustled, and a Japanese soldier in the tree was so scared he lost his grip and fell to his death.

Today this gingko tree is over 1,000 years old. Among all the ancient trees in Shanghai, its code of age is No. 0001.

Small dragon gives boy a rideand creates river

As the Yantie River meanders its way through Jiading District, it makes a big loop in Gelong Town before flowing to the south. Along its looping route in the district two river bends are found and locals call the bigger one Eighteen Watching Mum Bend and the smaller one Cattail Shoes Bend. These river bends have over the centuries become interwoven with the tale of a mother and her son who once saved the district from a devastating drought.

In an ancient summer, Tang Village suffered a big drought. One day a woman from the village and her eight-year-old son, Xiao Long, went to a pond to pump some water for their cotton farm. The pond had already dried up, and despite the mother's efforts she could only pump up a little slimy water.

Nearby Xiao Long was playing in the field, wearing the little cattail shoes his mother had made for him. Since there was no rain, all the flowers had died, butterflies had flown away and cotton in the fields drooped lazily.

Suddenly, the boy dug out a white earthworm and poked at it with a branch. The earthworm kept rolling around, looking like that it needed water badly. He ran to fetch some water that was just pump up by his mother and sprinkled on the earthworm. Surprisingly, the white earthworm grew bigger and bigger, and finally two horns appeared on its head and four legs on its body. Xiao Long was curious about the creature; he held its two horns and sat on the back. After a while, the earthworm grew into a little white dragon, and flew up to the sky with Xiao Long on its back.

He looked down from the dragon's back and saw his mother, who was still trying to pump water.

"Mum! Mum!" he screamed, excitedly.

His mother heard the voice and looked up. High above her son was riding on a white dragon heading north. She was anxious and kept yelling to him. Every time she yelled, Xiao Long looked back, and the little dragon twisted its body. Gradually, a twisted riverbed appeared on the ground - shaped like the twisting dragon.

The mother kept yelling and the son kept looking back, but the dragon still went farther. She was so tired that she fell down on the cotton field. Just at this moment, thunders resounded through the sky and rain fell heavily into the riverbed.

From that time on the river was called Yantie River by the locals. The Cattail Shoes Bend in the north of Gelong Town is the place where villagers picked up Xiao Long's little shoes. And north of Cattail Shoes Bend is a big and twisted river bend, the famous Watching Mum Bend. Since the river section contains eighteen twists, it's also called Eighteen Watching Mum Bend.

The trees of love that bridged Chapu River

There is a Chapu River in Nanxiang Town, over the river there is a bridge called Xiancha Bridge. The river flows from north to south through the old town and it is said that in ancient times, there was no bridge at all.

The river separated two families. The family on the East was rich and had a lovely daughter, while the family on the West was poor but had a strong son. The girl often played on the lawn and the boy often worked on the farmland. From their early childhood the two kids caught glimpses of each other across the river.

When they grew up, the girl became very beautiful and the boy was also handsome. They fell in love with each other, but the river prevented them from meeting each other.

Knowing that their son was deep in love with that girl, the boy's parents prepared some presents and asked a matchmaker to visit the girl's family. However, the girl's family didn't agree to the marriage because the boy was too poor.

Therefore, the unfortunate pair of little lovers could only sit silently at the riverside at nightfall, looking at each other from far away every day. Later, two small trees grew from the places where they sat.

As the days came and went, the trees grew bigger and bigger, but strangely enough they grew toward the river center, just like two hands reaching out to touch each other.

The young lovers were so happy and expected the trees to meet up so that they could use the tree bridge to visit each other. However, the two trees never touched.

One day, when they sat at the riverside and looked at each other just like they always did, the girl couldn't help weeping. But this time, her sobs attracted the attention of a fairy maiden who was passing by.

The fairy maiden immediately understood their plight. She waved her hand, and a colorful cloud flew to the river center, surrounding the two trees. As soon as the cloud faded they saw that the two trees had gathered together and become a complete tree bridge.

From that moment the young lovers could reach each other through the bridge every day. Later, the girl's family felt it was god's will and agreed to the marriage.

Local people then called the bridge Xiancha Bridge. Xiancha in Chinese means the God's raft, which can help people go across the Love River. The name of the bridge has passed down till now, leaving us a beautiful love story.