Lesser Known Guangzhou: Jinlun Guild Hall

On the way to Hualin Temple I came across one more lesser-known sight - Guangzhou Silk Guild Hall. It’s hardly ever mentioned in 'the sources', so it was a pleasure to stumble upon it.


photo from GoogleMaps

Jinlun Guild Hall was constructed in 1723 and rebuilt in 1844. It was originally the office of silk trading association of Guangzhou. Trading associations for different goods saw their development during Qing Dynasty along with the Maritime Silk Road, many of them built their own congregation halls serving as offices and meeting places. A shrine with Taoist or ancestral altar was an integral part of such buildings.



The building itself is ancestral temple type building with three consecutive halls and highly ornate roofs. Now the halls are almost empty except for some silk embroidery exhibition items and paintings for sale adorning the walls. Altars are gone, and side rooms house a stamp-carver’s workshop and a calligrapher. The structure itself is well-preserved and contains many original woodcarvings and carved stone inscriptions.



It’s the only guild hall building surviving in Guangzhou, out of dozens destroyed in turbulent times.
It’s also famous for its relocation and subsequent renovation project - in 2001, to make way for road widening, the Guild Hall was disassembled and moved northward by 80 meters, westward by 22.4 meters and elevated by 1.085 meters – a new word in Chinese traditional buildings’ preservation.



picture of relocation/renovation from lifeofguangzhou website


Jinlun Guild Hall (锦纶会馆)
Admission: 3 RMB
Location: South Kangwang Road, near the jade market
Metro: Chang Shou Lu

Hualin Temple: Lesser Known Guangzhou

Most people come to Guangzhou 'for business' - attend a fair, meet the suppliers, do some factory hopping. They virtually have no time to get acquainted with the city itself. And even if they do a couple of mainstream temples, a dim-sum restaurant and a river cruise will do it. Fortunately or not, I have more time, so the guidebook quickly runs out of sights. It's time to move further, get off the beaten trail. Here we go - some of the lesser known things come into mind. Some google, some baidu, and i have a destination for the weekend - Hualin Temple (华林寺).

According to the legend (and onsite signs) the temple was established in 5-6 century AD by Bodhidharma himself and was initially called 西来宫 (Xilai gong) - literally 'Temple of the guest from the West' .

Along with most of the religious structures in China it was heavily damaged (actually almost completely ruined) during the Cultural Revolution. Now only two halls survive - one was restored, the other is a replica made from scratch. The former houses giant golden Bodhidharma, the latter statues of 500 arhats - Buddhist saints who achieved enlightenment but decided to stay with the people to help relieve their suffering. One of the statues is said to depict Marco Polo who visited China in 13th century.



Well, nothing special, you'd say. I would have agreed if... if not the atmosphere. The thing is real - grannies come here with their grandchildren to teach them pray, shoppers from the nearby shopping street carry all the bags and sacks to give a quick bow, plump-faced 'serious' men buy giant joss sticks to burn (for some big sins, huh), youngsters with overgeled hair gaze at the flame and seem to think about life.

And it's free of charge! Very rare for a Chinese temple, the only one in Guangzhou that i saw so far.

Test

Decided to do some blogging about Canton, China where i currently live (well, Guangzhou now, but i do like the old name) and my travels around China and SEA.
We'll see if i'll have anough energy to keep it regularly amended))