Gulao Water Village 古劳水乡

About Gulao Water Village

Gulao Water Village (古劳水乡), also called Weidun Water Village (围墩水乡), is a landscape of creeks, earth mounds and fish ponds beside the Xijiang (西江) in Gulao Town (古劳镇), Heshan (鹤山), Jiangmen (江门). It is run by the OCT Group (华侨城集团) as a scenic area and was rated a national AAAA tourist attraction on 23 March 2023.

The landscape goes back to Gulao Wei (古劳围), a large flood-control enclosure raised in 1394, the 27th year of the Hongwu reign of the Ming, by the court and local villagers against the floods that hit the area year after year. A long embankment divides the water village from the Xijiang, and behind it stone bridges, raised earth mounds called weidun (围墩) and a cobweb of creeks and channels make up the scene. The Yangcheng Evening News describes it as the most intact native water town in the Lingnan (岭南) region.

The OCT Group began turning this wetland on the lower Xijiang into a resort in 2019 and opened it in 2020. The Jiangmen culture and tourism bureau describes a planned area of about 10 km², including a main scenic area of about 3 km², that takes in a core zone, a zone reviving the local farming heritage and one devoted to the heritage of Wing Chun (咏春) kung fu. Boat trips along the Henghai (横海) channels, stage shows on the water and the Gulao Xu (古劳圩) market belong to the resort, and the area has become Jiangmen's first provincial-level wetland park.

In Shuangqiao Village (双桥村) in Gulao Town, boats glide past Lingnan-style houses and lush dawn redwoods, and mulberry-dike fish ponds (桑基鱼塘) spread across the fields. The village's fish-skin dumplings (鱼皮角) joined Jiangmen's eighth list of municipal intangible cultural heritage in 2021, and the village has built a heritage food street around them and fish-floss congee (鱼茸粥). At the Henghai Lang lotus world (横海浪荷花世界) the flowers are at their best from July to September, and the ponds are one of the haunts of the egret, a nationally protected class-II species. Dongpo Pavilion (东坡亭) was put up by local people in the Northern Song to honour the poet Su Dongpo (苏东坡).

What to look for

• The long Xijiang embankment, with stone bridges, weidun mounds and a web of creeks behind it
• Boat trips on the Henghai (横海) channels past Lingnan-style houses and dawn redwoods
• Mulberry-dike fish ponds (桑基鱼塘) around Shuangqiao Village (双桥村)
• Henghai Lang lotus world (横海浪荷花世界), in flower July to September, with egrets
• Dongpo Pavilion (东坡亭), built in the Northern Song in memory of Su Dongpo
• Gulao Xu (古劳圩) market, fish-skin dumplings (鱼皮角) and fish-floss congee (鱼茸粥)

Location & getting there

Getting to Gulao Water Village

• Search for 古劳水乡 with 江门市 and 鹤山市.