Shamian Island and Chen Clan Ancestral Hall (Guangzhou)

Former British And French Concession Island And The 1894 Chen Clan Ancestral Hall · Guangzhou, Guangdong

Two sides of old Guangzhou within a short metro ride of each other. Shamian is a small sandbank island in the Pearl River that was leased to Britain and France after the Opium Wars and rebuilt as a foreign quarter of banks, consulates and churches, laid out with tree-lined avenues and cut off from the city by canals. Its grand European buildings - stuccoed, shuttered, draped in banyan roots - now house cafés, hotels and offices, and the island is a quiet, walkable place of lawns and statues, free and open at any hour. Across the water, the Chen Clan Ancestral Hall is the opposite tradition at its most exuberant: built in 1894 by subscription from Chen families across Guangdong as a shrine and study hall, it is a riot of Cantonese craftsmanship, with ridgepoles crowded with ceramic figures, carved wood screens, stone lions, brick reliefs and iron castings, all now the provincial folk art museum. Between them they capture the two faces of the city, the treaty port and the clan society, and both sit close to the Pearl River waterfront.

Shamian Island, Liwan District, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China

Shamian Island free and open at all hours; the Chen Clan Ancestral Hall about 9:00-17:30 with last tickets 17:00, closed Tuesdays except public holidays.

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