Shipi Village

Shipi Village

Shipi Village is located 23 kilometers west of Ninghua County and is an administrative village under the Hekou Township.

As the ancestral homeland of the Hakka people, it allows visitors to explore Hakka culture and traditions. The village features the Hakka Ancestral Hall and ancestral halls of multiple surnames.

Located in Shipi Village, Ninghua County, Sanming City, at the junction of Fujian and Jiangxi, it was originally just a secluded small mountain village. Since the Tang and Song dynasties, due to warfare in the Central Plains, Han people migrated southward en masse. Journeying downstream from the Yangtze River, along the Gan River, and over the foothills of the Wuyi Mountains, they eventually discovered Shipi—a fertile land like a paradise—and began to settle there. Over time, they developed a unique language and set of customs, and thus became known as the “Hakka.” As a result, Shipi has earned the titles “Cradle of the Hakka” and “Ancestral Land of the Hakka.” The area preserves many Hakka relics and maintains the Hakka language as well as traditional customs and practices.

At the entrance of Shipi Village stands an archway for the ancestral hall. Entering through the "Hakka Path" leads to the gate of the ancestral hall, where the main hall, Yuping Hall, enshrines the spirit tablets of ancestors from 152 Hakka surnames. In addition to the Hakka Ancestral Hall, the village also contains many ancestral halls belonging to individual surnames, reflecting the Hakka people’s reverence for their ancestors and homeland.

Starting from the mid-1980s, the tourism department of Sanming City launched the “Hakka Ancestral Land Tour,” which sparked wave after wave of interest among both domestic and overseas Hakka people in returning to Ninghua’s Shipi to seek their roots and honor their ancestors. The Hakka Ancestral Hall holds an annual grand Hakka ancestral worship ceremony. Thus, October 6th of each year has become the most important commemorative day for the Hakka people. On that day, representatives from Hakka communities around the world return to the ancestral hall in Shipi to pay tribute. Ninghua County is striving to develop Shipi Village into the “Mecca of the East” for the global Hakka community.

Dining / Accommodation / Shopping Some Hakka people maintain the tradition of eating raw fish, a custom said to have been introduced to Japan and regarded as the origin of Japanese sashimi. Hakka-style raw fish is incredibly delicious. The most famous place to try it in Ninghua County is “Da Yan Gu Cai Guan,” now renamed “Wenming Cai Guan.”

Transportation The village is over 150 kilometers from downtown Sanming and is accessible by direct road; road conditions are average.