throughout the "Battle of Shanghai". Despite Shanghai's greater importance by the beginning of the 20th century, its international settlement meant Songjiang was still used as the formal center of Chinese government for the region. Under the Republic of China, the Zhili clique leader Sun Chuanfang's Songhu () or Songjiang Special Administrative District covered most of what is now Shanghai Municipality, extending as far north as Chongming Island. During World War II, Japan occupied Songjiang from 9 November 1937 until 1945. Afterwards, both the Nationalist and Communist regional government was moved to Shanghai proper, leaving Songjiang a comparatively rural county. The city's many ancient religious structures and examples of traditional architecture were seriously damaged during the 1960s and 1970s amid the Cultural Revolution. Following the PRC's Opening Up Policy, Songjiang restored its more important religious buildings and developed into a college town hosting several large universities. In 1998, it was elevated to its current status as an urban district. Cultural Significant Features As the cultural root of Shanghai, Songjiang preserves brilliant and unique prehistoric, ancient and modern cultural significant features. In the prehistoric period, there formed Majiabang Culture, Songze Culture, Liangzhu Culture and Guangfulin Culture in Songjiang. The recent unearthed farming and working tools as well as rice and animal remains proved that people living in Songjiang at that time had already known how to plough the farming land, which pushed the primitive agricultural society forward to a more civilized one. At the beginning of the 21st century, discoveries in Songjiang Guangfulin Cultural Relics made great contribution to archaeology. Firstly, it clearly divided the primitive society into types like Songze Cultural, Liangzhu Cultural and Guangfulin Cultural, which was considered to be the cultural relics of New Stone Era in Taihu area; secondly, immigrants from the Yellow River were conformed to be the first group of immigrants coming Shanghai; thirdly, there were towns in Shanghai dating back to as far as Zhou Dynasty; fourthly, two unique types of houses in primitive society were found: stilt house and ground house. As time passed by, there were two important periods in the ancient Chinese society: the Western Jin Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty, characterized by the following four significant cultural features: 1.Originality Excellent cultural environment in Songjiang cultivated a great number of elites, represented by litterateurs like Lu Ji and Lu Yun in the Western Jin Dynasty, Chinese painters like Dong Qichang in the