History

The building was supported to build by 48 Chen family members, providing accommodation for the sons of the clan for preparing imperial examination or dealing with personal affairs, and placing the ancestral tablets if Chen family member is willing to pay for it. It started to built in 1888 and finished in 1894. Afterwards, it also served as middle school, Guangdong Folk Arts Museum, printing factory. In 1986, it was promulgated by the State Council as a national key cultural relics protection unit. In 2002 and 2011, it was chosen as one of the top Eight Scenes of Guangzhou.

Layout

It situated on the No.7 Zhongshan Road in Guangzhou city covering 8,000 square meters, consisting of 9 halls, 6 yards, 10 adjacent accommodation and long corridors. The hall in the center is the main building where the Chen clan member held sacrifices or meetings in spring and autumn. Continue entering, ancestral tablet of Chen family and sacrifice hall has appeared. The side of the rooms is slightly low which was used for class in ancient time.  

Things to do in Chen Clan Academy

Wood Carving

Almost all of the wooden part was engraved numerous historical stories and auspicious patterns, main craftmanship are embossment and carving. The first beam above the front door described with Heaven Queen Birthday and Romance of the Three Kingdoms etc. In the middle of the hall, placing 20 double-sided carved screens featuring historical stories and folk tales, which was praised as the historical story corridor by folk artists by wood and steel knife. 11 gigantic carved wooden cages with 8 meters height on the rear part, engraving countless images of dragons, phenixes, flowers, characters and stories, which is the largest wood carving masterpiece of the Qing dynasty in Guangdong province.

Stone Carving

The stones using in Chen Clan Academy are granite which is dampproof, mould proof and strong enough. The handrail and balcony are decorated with flowers, birds, and fruit carving, which is full of the atmosphere of the Lingnan area and sincere respect to ancestors and gods. Besides, stone carving can be seen at pillars,  beam, breast board, stone lion, base and wainscot etc with vivid storytelling.

Brick Carving

The main craftsmanship of brick carving is embossment, partly the use of pierced carving, three-dimensional carving etc. All the brick carvings were made by famous folk artists, enriching the boring walls and emphasizing the style of Guangdong brick carving. The 6 large brick carvings on the front wall of Chen Clan Academy are made of Dongguan black bricks with fine texture, which combines with paintings, calligraphy and poems perfectly.

Lime Carving

Lime carving is wildly used in the traditional architecture decoration amoung Pearl River Delta. Use lime and fermented straws to make the shape then painted with a variety of colors. The lime carving of Chan Clan Academy is the outstanding part of the Lingnan area with 2,562 meters long and covering 2,448 square meters, which is mainly used for roof base, gable vertical ridge, porch roof, wing rooms, courtyard gallery and roof ridge.

Pottery Carving

Pottery ridge carvings, also called colored ridge, which is made by calcining clay sculpture, is mainly decorated for large buildings like temples, ancestral halls, guild halls etc. The front ridge has 11 pieces of Foshan pottery sculptures, it reflects the economic power of the Chen clan in Guangdong province. With 27 meters long, 2.9 meters high and carving around 224 characters with classic topics.

Copper and Iron Casting

It's very rare in the traditional architecture of the Qing dynasty to use copper and iron casting. The folk artists skillfully put the iron casing board in the frame of the stone fence, which looks very beautiful and unique.

Zhujiang New Town 

Introduction 

Zhujiang New Town is Guangzhou’s newly built central business district constructed on formerly occupied agricultural land covering and area of 6.5 square kilometers with a construction area of 14,960 square meters. The area has different iconic landmark buildings such as the Twin Towers, Guangzhou Opera House, the new Canton Towers, Guangzhou New Library, the second Children’s Palace and the new Guangdong Museum. The world's highest TV tower also stands here at 600m high. There are 14 blocks covering around 20 hectares in the new city that are designed to be financial centers, administration centers, business centers, shopping centers while others are residential blocks.

Things to see and do on a visit

Sightsee

Visitors enjoy a visit to Huangpu Dadao and Haixin Sha Tourist Park that was developed during the 2010 Asian Games away from the usual concrete landscape and the busy traffic at the city center. There is perfect heaven of sculpted lushes and blossoms in the midst of quirky seats underneath an ultra-modern set of architectural sites. This area hosts many high-end hotels including the Grand Hyatt and the Ritz-Carlton. 

Visitors can also witness the beauty of architecture and the power of expression through architecture in designs such as the Opera House emulating Guangzhou’s competitiveness and confidence, the treasure box-shaped Guangdong Provincial Museum and Guangzhou Library. It is also the most perfect location to have a fine view of one of Guangzhou's renowned landmarks like the Canton Tower right across the river from Haixinsha Tourist Park, where the Asian Games' opening ceremony was held.

Shop, Eat and Drink

On the southern side of Xingsheng street is a variety of new restaurants, bars and cafes where visitors can taste local cuisine or quench their thirst in internationally owned restaurants like the Vietnamese restaurant, American style barbecue restaurants or at the Chinese restaurants. 

Outsourced and imported goodies from all over the globe are also in plenty here with a selection of the finest deli cheese, dry goods, imported beer and packaged meats. Along Huajiu Street is an array of expat bars like the Brew and the Tavern. 

Yuexiu Park is the largest comprehensive park in Guangzhou city, which is considered one of eight sights since the Yuan dynasty. The park features the style of the Lingnan area, the natural landscapes and cultural heritage perfectly coexist. A lot of visitors will come to the park to exercise daily, have a leisurely walk in the verdant forest, or join the hilarious flower show held in each spring and autumn.

What’s to see

Five Rams Statue

In the legendary story, five Fairies riding the rams to Guangzhou and give grain to starved people to plant, however, the five rams turned into stones. Five Rams Statue is the symbol of Guangzhou city. It was built in 1959 and carved by over 130 pieces of granite with 11 meters high, showing different expressions on the face. In the middle, the goat looks forward and holds the grain in the mouth, surrounded by two small goats snuggled up to two mature goats, reflecting love and peace and making people touched by the statue. Now we called Guangzhou as Ram City because of this beautiful legend.

Zhenhai Tower

Zhenhai Tower, also called Five Storey Tower, was praised at No. 1 beautiful landscapes in the Lingnan area. Built in 1380 during the Ming dynasty, it’s 28 meters high and 31 meters wide, boasting as the imposing and ethnic ancient building. You can climb to the top of Zhenhai Tower to have a bird’s view of the whole Guangzhou city and Pearl River. Now it changed its name to Guangzhou Museum which uses for storing historical relics and holding exhibitions.

Sun Yat-sen Monument

Located on the top of Guanyin Mountain, Sun Yat-sen Monument is built in 1929 by famous architect Lv Yanzhi, in honor of democratic revolutionist Mr. Sun. You need to climb 498 steps to reach the top to enjoy the monument which is made by granite, with 37 meters high, carving the last will of Sun Yat-sen, encouraging Chinese people to fight for the right of freedom and equality. On the base, it carved 26 stone rams to represent the Ram City-Guangzhou.

Ancient City Wall of Ming Dynasty

On the back of Sun Yat-sen Monument, there is an 1100-meter-long ancient city wall hiding in the forest, the only city wall section of Ming dynasty in Guangzhou. It is considered as one of three ground monuments in the early Ming dynasty with a history for more than 600 years, as well as Zhenhai Tower and Bell Tower.