Discover Guangzhou
Chen Clan Ancestral Hall
陈家祠
An 1894 clan temple that is really a showroom for every Cantonese decorative craft at once - wood, brick and stone carving, ceramic roof friezes and iron lacework. Now the Guangdong Folk Arts Museum, and astonishing value for ten yuan.
The story
What makes this place special
The Chen Clan Ancestral Hall, also called the Chen Clan Academy, was completed in 1894. It was proposed by Chen Ruinan and Chen Zhaonan after they returned from America, and paid for by Chens living overseas together with Chen lineages in 72 counties of Guangdong — a clan-wide subscription rather than one family's money. It did two jobs: ancestral worship, and coaching clan members for the imperial examinations. When the examinations were abolished in 1905 it became a practical school, then an industrial college, then middle schools. It was protected from 1957, listed nationally in 1988, and now houses the Guangdong Folk Art Museum.
What you’ll discover
Nineteen buildings, nine halls and six courtyards over about 13,200 square metres, strictly symmetrical on a north-south axis, with narrow 'Qingyun' side alleys between the blocks. The reason to come is the decoration, which is the most complete surviving display of Cantonese architectural craft anywhere: eleven ceramic ridge crests on the roofs, the one over the Gathering Hall carrying 224 figures; sixteen double-sided carved wooden screen doors showing opera and literary scenes; roughly 1,800 metres of plaster relief along ridge bases and corridor roofs; large carved brick wall panels; iron railings; and stone drums and columns at the entrances.
A little local insight
Good to know before you go
- Look up first. The ceramic ridge crests are the best thing here and they are above eye level, so almost everyone photographs the courtyards and misses them. Bring or use a zoom.
- Walk the Qingyun side alleys between the halls. They are where the brick carving panels are, they are empty, and the light in them is the best in the complex.
- The carved screen doors between the Gathering Hall and the Back Hall are double-sided — go round and look at the reverse, which most visitors do not.
- It is directly on metro Line 1 at Chen Clan Academy station, which makes it the easiest serious sight in the city to reach. Allow ninety minutes, not thirty.
- The folk art museum displays inside are a bonus, not the point; if time is short, spend it on the building fabric.
When to come
Morning on a weekday, with sun low enough to rake across the ridge crests and the brick panels. Overcast days flatten all the relief work, which is the whole attraction.
Getting around
Mostly manageable. The complex is on flat ground, the courtyards are paved, and the distances are short. The obstacles are the raised timber thresholds at the hall doorways — several centimetres high, at every hall — and a few steps up onto the hall platforms. A wheelchair user can cross the courtyards and see the roofs and exteriors, with help needed at the thresholds; a bad knee will be fine.
Worth knowing before you go
Look up: the ridge of the main hall carries a 27-metre Shiwan ceramic frieze with hundreds of named figures.
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