Guangning Gongzheng Guild Hall

Guangning Gongzheng Guild Hall

The Guangning Gongzheng Guild Hall is located on Jiujie Street in Shijian Town, Guangning County. It faces west and was built in the eighth year of the Jiaqing reign during the Qing Dynasty (1803), then renovated in the twentieth year of the Daoguang reign (1840).

The guild hall features a pyramidal tiled roof and is a brick-and-wood structure. It has a rectangular floor plan, with the main building topped by a flush gable roof and supported by a post-and-lintel beam frame. Above the entrance is embedded a stone plaque inscribed with the characters “Guild Hall” (会馆) in intaglio regular script. There were a total of five steles recording the regulations of the Gongzheng Guild Hall as well as details about its establishment and renovations. Originally embedded in the walls on either side of the courtyard, these steles are now preserved in the county museum.

Shijian Town was an important trade hub along the middle reaches of the Sui River at the time, with nearly a hundred large and small merchant establishments. The Gongzheng Guild Hall served as a civil commercial institution, playing a role in maintaining normal local trade, coordinating market prices, and overseeing commerce.

Shijian Town: Geography: Shijian Town is located in the southern part of Guangning County, 100 km from Guangzhou, 75 km from Zhaoqing, and 16 km from the county seat, and is known as the “southern gateway” of Guangning. The town covers an area of 42.22 square kilometers and governs three village committees and two community neighborhood committees, comprising 102 natural villages. Situated near the Tropic of Cancer, the area has gently rolling terrain and belongs to a hilly zone with a mild, subtropical climate and an average annual temperature of 22 degrees Celsius. The town has 47,000 mu of mountainous land and 8,000 mu of arable land.

Population: The current resident population is 13,400.

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