Here's a little hidden-not-so-hidden gem for Shanghai urban explorers: the Zikawei Library opened in 2023 next to the arrestingly historic St Ignatius Cathedral. If you're looking to take a stroll around Shanghai's largest and easily most impressive Roman Catholic church, you should add on a trip to the Zikawei Library right next door to enjoy its ghostly modern neo-Gothic stylings and check out the interesting little quirks housed therein.

Formerly the Xuhui Library, Zikawei Library is a huge, three-story complex coming to us from Wutopia Labs and features, as its viral attraction, a massive immersive atrium with 3D printed transparent latticework forming a pagoda. We're getting themes of dynamic modernity coexisting with mysterious ancient times, arcane knowledge intermixed with cutting-edge technology deployed, fact with fantasy, truth with lore – we're just going to say it, it's like an Assassin's Creed cutscene.

Zikawei Library has been open for a minute now, but this ground-floor area, climbing up to the top of the structure, hosts streams of people daily just to take a picture of Wutopia Lab's fascinating work. If you climb up to the upper floors and explore the stacks, however, there's even more to see and enjoy in this fully functioning public library. In particular, on the second floor is a sprawling wall of hardcover, English-language art, pop culture and design books, not the least of which is the star of the show, the impossibly commanding HR Giger book from TASCHEN. This is pretty much the complete works of HR Giger, so there you go.

They've also got the TASCHEN for Gustav Klimt, MC Escher, Wiener Werkstätte, and… Depeche Mode as well! Amazing. Other notable titles: "Andy Warhol Polaroids, 1958-1987," "Hieronymus Bosch: The Complete Works," and "David Hockney: 82 Portraits" – it's a lot of really neat stuff. On the wall facing this one are Chinese translations of English-language poetry, with everything from Beowulf to the Beats represented. If you're reading your Bertolt Brecht, T.S. Eliot, and Theodore Roethke in Chinese, please accept our deepest respect.

Up on the third floor is more English-language stuff, including Victorian Lit Penguin classics, the complete works of William Shakespeare, and an up-to-date magazine section with the world's last magazines: Wired, National Geographic, GQ and Reader's Digest, interestingly enough. Up on these second and third floors, it's really quite quiet and serene, even though it's full of people. It's mostly students, studying desperately for an upcoming make-or-break life moment. Don't disturb them, but wordlessly send them your positive vibes as you tiptoe past, exploring the balconies, nooks and crannies. And yeah, you can spend a good, healthy hour exploring all the sections, architectural flourishes and displays. Don't miss, for example, the "General Star Atlas of the Southern and Northern Hemisphere Separated by the Equator." It's the earliest all-sky star map in Chinese and is the most detailed of its era. Completed in the 16th century during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), it records 1,816 stars. Neat.

If you go...

Opening hours: 9am-9pm, Tuesdays to Sundays

Address: 158 Caoxi Rd N., Xuhui District 徐汇区漕溪北路158号