Guanlan Printmaking Village 观澜版画村

About Guanlan Printmaking Village

The village that became the base was Dashuitian, formed of two natural villages, Niuhu Xinweichang – also known as Longmenwei – and Dashutian, built against the hills and water in the traditional Hakka row-house manner with old dwellings, ancestral halls, ponds, wells and watchtowers. It carries more than three hundred years of history. On 18 May 2006 the China Artists Association, the Shenzhen Federation of Literary and Art Circles and the district government signed an agreement to make the site a national printmaking base, choosing Guanlan because the printmaker Chen Yanqiao came from E'dixia Village here. Chen took up printmaking in the 1930s, joined the Chinese Left-wing Artists' League and from 1933 corresponded with Lu Xun, which drew him into the new woodcut movement; the row house where he was born is now an exhibition hall in his name.

The conversion followed a repair-as-found approach, avoiding large-scale demolition and keeping the rural character of the village, while adding an excavated lake planted with lotus, viewing terraces and courtyards. The base is planned across 1.4 million square metres with a central zone of 316,000 square metres, and divides into an eastern part holding the printmaking workshops and artists' quarter and a western part forming the international artists' village. It was formally inaugurated in May 2007 during the third China International Cultural Industries Fair. By 2023 more than a thousand printmakers from 98 countries and regions had worked there, producing over 90,000 prints.

What to look for

• The Hakka row houses, ancestral halls, old wells and ponds of the former Dashuitian village, kept rather than rebuilt
• The watchtower whose reflection falls in the village water, set among coconut, mango and banyan trees
• The Chen Yanqiao exhibition hall in the row house at E'dixia where the printmaker was born
• The printmaking workshops in the eastern zone, where visiting artists have their work printed
• The international artists' village occupying the western zone of the base
• The excavated lotus lake and viewing terraces added during the conversion

Location & getting there

Getting to Guanlan Printmaking Village

Identify the main visitor approach and any separately managed houses, museums or performances. Ask before entering residential spaces or photographing residents.

• Search for 观澜版画村 with 深圳市 and 龙华区.