Jieyang Ancient City Quarter 揭阳古城街区

About Jieyang Ancient City Quarter

Jinxianmen was listed as a Guangdong provincial cultural relic protection unit in December 2015. The district government describes it as a nationally rare single structure combining a city gate, a tower and a pavilion in one: a stone-built gate below, and above it a pavilion-style three-storey tower 16.77 metres tall, built entirely of fir wood, its ground floor three bays deep and five rooms wide, its upper level an octagonal pavilion under a glazed pyramidal roof, with upturned eaves at the four corners. In the Ming and Qing the tower served as a night-watch post, and the dawn sounding of a watchman's horn there gave it the name "the watchtower's dawn horn", one of the old Eight Sights of Jieyang.

In the old city's core Zhongshan quarter, the north-south Zhongshan Road runs north to the site of the former county yamen; it is a provincial-level historic and cultural street, known as Xuanhua Street in the Ming and Qing and renamed in the Republican era, about 700 metres long, retaining more than 310 historic buildings that combine Nanyang-style arcaded fronts with Chaoshan wood carving, stone carving and porcelain-inlay work. The old city also holds Jieyang's Confucian temple, which the district government describes as the largest and most completely preserved building of its kind in the Lingnan region and the only cultural relic protection unit in Guangdong named for a Zhou Enlai revolutionary-activity site, listed nationally in 2013; the City God Temple, built in 1369 and described by the district government as the oldest, largest and best-preserved temple of its kind known in the province, listed nationally in 2019; and the stone-built Jieyang county yamen wall, known as Jincheng, dating from the Yuan dynasty and listed as a provincial cultural relic protection unit in 2012.

What to look for

• Jinxianmen, the old city's sole surviving gate, combining a stone gate, a three-storey fir-wood tower and an octagonal pavilion in one structure.
• Zhongshan Road, the arcaded historic street with more than 310 surviving buildings blending Nanyang colonnade fronts with Chaoshan carving and porcelain-inlay work.
• Jieyang's Confucian temple (Xuegong), listed as a national key cultural relic protection unit in 2013.
• Jieyang's City God Temple, built in 1369 and listed as a national key cultural relic protection unit in 2019.
• The stone-built Jieyang county yamen wall, Jincheng, of Yuan-dynasty origin, with three old banyan trees surviving on its inner north wall.

Location & getting there

Getting to Jieyang Ancient City Quarter

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

• Search for 揭阳古城街区 with 揭阳市 and 榕城区.