现在，您正在上海城隍庙的大门附近。庙观的大门，通常称为“山门”。城隍庙的山门是在明朝嘉靖十四年（1535年）建造的，已经有四百五十年以上的历史了。山门的柱子是石柱，山门的横梁是木材制作的。上面有四个金色大字“保障海隅”，原来是由明代上海县知县冯彬题写的。

现在你见到的字是在1994年上海城隍庙恢复开放的时候，根据历史照片重新书写的。保障海隅就是保护上海的意思。山门前面有二个石狮子，也有几百年的历史了，被来庙烧香的香客用手摩的精光铮亮。据说，手摩石狮子可以带来平安和福气。

山门前面原来是一个广场，清代末年建造的方浜中路在山门前通过。在庙门的对面有个照壁。照壁前面还有二根旗杆。旗杆上平时挂着“国泰民安”、“风调雨顺”的旗帜。在旗杆前面就是照壁。照壁是用青灰色的青砖雕刻而成的。对着大门的一面中间是一只神兽的图样。这只神兽名字叫“X”，它的形状很像另外一种神兽“麒麟”。独角、马蹄、浑身长满鱼鳞。“×”作为神兽能够吃掉各种邪恶的东西，后来因为吃得多了，越吃越贪，就吃尽了各种珍珠宝贝。可是它还不满足，就想吃掉天上的太阳。结果就在奔向太阳的路上，掉进了永世不得翻身的谷底。照壁上塑造“×”这个形象，就是告诫到城隍庙来的人，人生在世不能贪得无厌。欲望是万恶之源。

照壁的另外一面雕刻着三只羊，羊和“阳”是谐音。三只羊就是“三阳开泰”的意思。三阳开泰原来是易的卦象，意思是阳气生长，阴气渐消，冬去春来，生活和事业都越来越好。

Now, you are at the front gate of the Shanghai City God Temple. The front gate of   temple is often called “Mountain Gate”, as the early Taoist hermits built their chapels in the mountain in order to live a life of tranquility and taciturnity. City God Temple’s mountain gate was built in 1535, the 14th year of Emperor Jia-jing’s reign during Ming Dynasty, thus today it enjoys a history of more than 450 years. The structure of mountain gate consists of stone pillars and timber beams. The four golden characters up the gate read “to protect the coastline”, which actually means to protect Shanghai. The characters were originally written by Shanghai county sheriff Fengbin in the Ming Dynasty; however, what you see today is a reproduction based on historical pictures, created in 1994 from which time the City God Temple has once again been open to the public. The two stone lions in front of the mountain gate also have a history of hundreds of years. People believe that patting their heads will bring peace and luck. After being touched by thousands and thousands of visitors, you can see their bodies are very shiny now.

There used to be a square in front of the mountain gate, Fangbang Middle Road built in the last few years of the Qing Dynasty- used to run through the gate. To the opposite side of the temple gate, there is the screen wall with two flagpoles in the front. Normally we have flags with writings that pray for the peace of the people and for propitious weather that promises a harvest. The screen wall is made of steel gray bricks. On the side to the gate, there’s the picture of a sacred animal, whose name is “Tan”. With a single horn, horse hooves and fish scales, it looks like another kind of sacred nimal “Qilin”. As a sacred animal, “Tan” could eat all kinds of evil, but then it ate too much and became greedy, and began eating pearls and gems. Still hungry, the animal wanted to eat the sun in the sky. On the way in pursuit of the sun, it dropped into s deep valley and could never get out again. The picture of “Tan” on the screen wall warns visitors to the City God Temple that greed is the source of all evil.

There are three goats on the other side of the screen wall. “Goat” in Mandarin sounds the same as “Yang” which has a positive connotation and is the opposite to the negative “Yin”. “Three goats” refers to “Triple Yang that Brings Prosperity” from I-Ching, the Book of Changes, as one of the 64 diagrams which refer to prophetic implications to the universe. And this diagram here means the Yang, or the positive power is waxing, while the Yin, or the negative power, is waning. Winter has gone and spring is on the way. People’ lives and careers are getting better.