Tingzhou Guild Hall

　　  Destination Introduction   The Tingzhou Guild Hall is located in the northwest of Chongwen District, on Changxiang No. 2 Lane outside Qianmen. It was first built during the Hongzhi reign of the Ming Dynasty (1488–1505), and is the only folk building in Beijing with a Fujian architectural style, funded and constructed by fellow provincials from Fujian residing in the capital. In 1984, it was listed as a municipal-level cultural relics protection unit.

　　　　    Location: Situated in the northwest of Chongwen District

　　　　    The Tingzhou Guild Hall consists of a northern hall and a southern hall, facing each other across the street. The northern hall was built first and includes six courtyards of varying sizes, with over 50 rooms in total. The central courtyard serves as the main area, featuring a large five-bay hall that originally functioned as the guild’s ancestral shrine, enshrining the Goddess of the Sea (Tianhou) and memorial tablets of the guild’s founding pioneers. The shrine is exquisitely constructed and exhibits characteristics of southern Chinese architecture: beams, columns, doors, and windows are all made from China fir sourced from the south. The roof has a gentle slope, with front porches and rear corridors. The interior of the porch is adorned with latticed curtain-style carved doors and windows, all uniformly designed. The ceiling of the porch is open to reveal the wooden structure, featuring carved elephant-trunk-shaped rafters, and the projecting beams are adorned with double elephant-shaped bracket arms. The beam ends are intricately carved with decorative patterns of animals such as heavenly steeds and divine oxen. The overall architectural style is unique, with exquisite carvings and subtle coloring in a simple and elegant palette. The other courtyards are also independently designed, creating a nested effect of “courtyards within courtyards.” The southern hall was built later, during the Qianlong reign of the Qing Dynasty. It also has a main hall, inside which a statue of Wenchang Star, intricately carved from hardwood, is enshrined. Its architecture is not as refined as that of the northern hall, and the scale is smaller.  Transportation Information
　　Take bus routes 2, 17, 20, 50, 53, 59, 110, 120, 805, or 819, get off at Dashilar Station, and walk east into Xianyukou Street.

　　     Chongwen District, Beijing