Guangzhou Attractions The Chen Clan AcademyGuangzhou Attractions,Guangzhou Popular Tourists Attractions Guide
Located right near the Chenjiaci Subway Station, in the western part of the city, and with a floor space of 13,200 square metres in 19 buildings, the Chen Clan Academy is one of the famous historical sites typical of South China architecture.
Built in 1636 in the late period of the Ming Dynasty with funds raised by the Chen families from 72 countries of Guangdong province, The Chen Clan Academy was a site for worship as well as a place for Chen children to stay while taking imperial examinations in Guangzhou. In the academy, the spacious halls interspaced by countryards and connected by verandas are decorated with a good collection of beautiful and exquisite Guangdong folks arts and crafts. Stone carvings, brick-carvings, lime sculptures, wood-carvings and objects of iron casting can be found everywhere.
Decorations of artistic wood-carvings are especially superb and the twelve big screens in its" Sage-Gathering Hall" appear magnificent and imposing, and can be rated as rare pieces of artistic wood-carvings. Beams and niches in the academy are all decorated with delicate wood-carvings involving various interesting subjects. Wood-carvings of poems and pictures are mainly used to adorn the front-door walls, which seem to from a beautiful art gallery. Vivid in shape and life-like in appearance, the Shiwan ceramic figurines on the eaves all made on themes taken from Chinese historical stories. This noted Ming-dynasty structure, once seriously damaged, has been renovated and restored to its original grandeur. It is the most complete and magnificent artistic structure in Guangdong Province still in existence.
