Langtou Old Village 塱头古村

About Langtou Old Village

The name comes from lang, low wet ground beside water: the houses stand on a rise between marshy land to the south and a mound to the north. The settlement is divided into three quarters, Langdong, Langzhong and Langxi, and has more than six hundred years behind it. It is known locally as a village of imperial-examination graduates, and the tradition it is identified with is the combination of farming and study. The village's group of historic buildings was listed as a Guangdong provincial protected heritage unit in 2015, and the village as a whole is a designated Chinese historic and cultural village.

Close to 200 intact grey-brick buildings of the Ming and Qing periods survive here, most of them Qing. Among them are three watchtowers and gate towers and nearly thirty ancestral halls, study halls and academies. The standard plan is three bays deep by two or three courtyards, closed at the gable ends by fire walls in either a chevron or the curved wok-handle profile, with moulded plaster ridges. The carving and plasterwork are the reason to look closely, and the district's own account rates Youlan Ancestral Hall and Guyi Study Hall highest. More than twenty old lanes run between the blocks, and the village also keeps the Shengping Renrui memorial arch, Qingyun Bridge and an old kapok tree.

A newer element sits beside the village: Chunyangtai, a cultural centre of 8,602 square metres built beside a lotus pond as part of a rural revitalisation project and opened to the public in April 2023. It was designed by the architect Yung Ho Chang and named after the study of the Lingnan scholar Chen Xianzhang (1428-1500). It holds exhibition galleries, a library with a rare-book room, a reading room and a theatre.

What to look for

• Youlan Ancestral Hall and Guyi Study Hall, singled out for the quality of their stone, brick and timber carving and plasterwork
• The wok-handle and chevron gable-end fire walls and moulded ridge decoration on the grey-brick houses
• The Shengping Renrui memorial arch and Qingyun Bridge
• The grid of more than twenty old lanes between the three quarters of Langdong, Langzhong and Langxi
• Chunyangtai, the lotus-pond cultural centre designed by Yung Ho Chang and opened in 2023

Location & getting there

Getting to Langtou Old Village

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

• Search for 塱头古村 with 广州市 and 花都区.