Chuannan Guild Hall

Chuannan Guild Hall

Chuannan Guild Hall is a cultural relic protection unit in Longsheng.

Chuannan Guild Hall is located at No. 10 Gulong Street in the city center of Longsheng Various Nationalities Autonomous County. It faces west and is backed by the east and north sides of the county tourism bureau, with the main street to its west and south. It is the only ancient Qing Dynasty building in the county and also the sole county-level key cultural relics protection unit, covering an area of 291.32 square meters.

Chuannan Guild Hall was built in the year Renwu of the Guangxu reign during the Qing Dynasty (1882). It was funded and constructed by people of Hunan origin living in Longsheng at the time. Originally a quadrangle courtyard, it featured a stage on the west side, wing rooms on the north and south, and a temple on the east. The temple originally housed five statues of deities, which had gone missing before the liberation. The main gate bears a stone-carved couplet: “Though humble the abode, let virtue’s sweet scent be known; With hometowns in view, let kinfolk meet and chat.” The guild hall’s temple fair is held annually on the third day of the third lunar month.

During the War of Resistance against Japan, the county government of the Republican era repurposed it as a temporary prison, and the early post-liberation People’s Government also used it as a makeshift jail. In 1953, after the establishment of the county cultural center, it served as a reading room. In 1980, the county cultural relics management office was founded, and the building was used as an exhibition space for cultural relics. In 1981, it was designated as a county-level key cultural relics protection unit.

Source: Longsheng Tourism Network