“Peerless Filial Piety” Wooden Memorial Archway

“Peerless Filial Piety” Wooden Memorial Archway

The “Peerless Filial Piety” wooden memorial archway is a cultural tourism attraction and a national-level forest park.

The “Peerless Filial Piety” wooden memorial archway is located in the center of Heting Town and was built in honor of the chaste woman Huang Jiugu during the autumn of the Renle year of the Ming Dynasty (1612), boasting a history of nearly four hundred years. It was renovated once in the 14th year of the Qianlong reign of the Qing Dynasty (1749). In 1983, the People’s Government of Fujian Province also allocated funds for its restoration. In 1986, the Gutian County People’s Government designated it as a county-level cultural relics protection unit, and in 2001 it was listed as a provincial-level cultural relics protection unit.

The wooden archway is a pavilion-style structure built with fir wood and straddles the roadway. Originally, it featured four large columns, three bays, and three stories. It stands about nine meters tall, with a base covering an area of 53.5 square meters. The central section has a single-eave royal-ridge roof, below which various wooden carvings such as clay figurines and floral-bird designs are displayed. The upper level uses interlocking brackets supported by square blocks, projecting layer by layer to bear the load of the rafters and eaves. The side bays have single-eave hanging gables, with colored paintings beneath the ridges. Its structure is unique and its craftsmanship extraordinary — a masterpiece of ingenuity by ancestral master builders.