Shawan Ancient Town 沙湾古镇

About Shawan Ancient Town

The town is a designated Chinese historic and cultural town and is more than 800 years old. Its fabric includes stone-stepped lanes and a large quantity of building from the Ming, Qing and Republican periods; around a hundred ancestral halls survive, of which Liugeng Tang is treated as the representative example. One provincial-level protected heritage unit, fourteen municipal-level units and 109 heritage points registered in the third national heritage survey lie within the town. The decoration is as much the point as the plans: brick, timber and stone carving, moulded lime plaster and wall painting survive in quantity.

Shawan's other claim is musical. In the mid-1920s three composers of the local He family, He Liutang, He Yunian and He Shaoxia, brought the town to prominence in Cantonese instrumental music, and three of the four best-known pieces in the repertoire, Racing the Dragon Boats, Rain on the Banana Leaves and Hungry Horse Shaking its Bells, came from Shawan. Sanren Ting, a lineage hall named for the carambola tree in its courtyard, was where musicians and opera performers met, and a couplet on its walls works the titles of two of the pieces into its lines. The amateur music societies that grew out of that scene have continued, and a Cantonese music hall in the town sets out the genre's history. Cantonese music and lion dance as practised here are on the national intangible heritage list, and Shawan's piaose float parades and its brick carving are on the provincial list.

What to look for

• Liugeng Tang, the ancestral hall treated as the representative example of the hundred or so surviving in the town
• Sanren Ting, the lineage hall linked to the Cantonese music circle and named for the carambola tree in its courtyard
• The brick, timber and stone carving and moulded lime plaster on the halls and houses
• The stone-stepped lanes and the Ming, Qing and Republican-period street fabric
• The Shawan Cantonese Music Hall, which sets out the history of the genre

Location & getting there

Getting to Shawan Ancient Town

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

• Search for 沙湾古镇 with 广州市 and 番禺区.