Shuzhu Gang

Shuzhu Gang

Shuzhu Gang

A well-known historic site. Located on Wufeng Village along Xin'gang Road on the southern bank of the Pearl River (known as Wansong Gang during the Song Dynasty). During the Qing Dynasty’s Daoguang era, Taoist priest Li Mingche (Taoist name Qinglai) saw that this hill was “surrounded by mountains and winding waters, with elegant pines and peculiar rocks,” and thus named it Shuzhu Gang. On the hill stands the Chunyang Temple, funded by Li and completed in the sixth year of the Daoguang reign (1826), which gets its name from the enshrinement of the Pure Yang True Lord. The temple is built against the hillside with a rigorous, simple, and classic layout. Behind the temple lies the Chaodou Platform, constructed from granite, which was built by Li Mingche in his later years for astronomical observation and is the only surviving ancient observatory platform in the Guangzhou area. In modern times, Shuzhu Gang was once a gathering place for literati to engage in poetry and wine. Stone carvings of the characters “Mei She” (Plum Society) remain. To the front left of the Chunyang Temple originally stood the Yang Fu Ancestral Hall, built under the direction of Ruan Yuan, but it no longer exists.