Wanshou Palace Historic District 万寿宫历史文化街区

About Wanshou Palace Historic District

The Tiezhu Wanshougong was founded in Jiangxi more than 1,600 years ago in memory of the Daoist figure Xu Zhenjun, and the quarter around it, bounded by Chuanshan Road, Cuihua Street and Zhongshan Road, is treated as the origin point of the Jiangxi guild halls and the parent temple of more than a thousand Wanshougong elsewhere in the world. Sources record the street as already known in the Jin dynasty for its temple traffic and trade, ranked with the City God Temple in Shanghai and the Confucius Temple in Nanjing among the three great Jiangnan temple quarters. One street away lies the Guangrunmen wharf on the old channel of the Fu River, described as one of the three principal commercial centres of Jiangnan under the Ming and Qing. In that period merchants from Jiangxi formed the network known as the Jiangyou merchant group, with separate groupings for medicine, tea, grain, porcelain and cloth, and the Wanshougong name travelled with them as the Jiangxi guild hall. Wanshougong culture was entered on Jiangxi's second batch of provincial intangible cultural heritage in 2007.

The present quarter was built from 2013 on the original Tiezhu Wanshougong site and opened in February 2021, covering about 54,000 square metres. It is organised in three parts: historic dwellings, commercial streets, and the religious and cultural area of the Wanshougong itself. There are 123 buildings in all, 118 of them in the late Qing Gan-style vernacular, among which 45 are counted as historic fabric, including the Nanchang General Chamber of Commerce, Chizhi Hall, the Yutai salt house and the former residence of Luo Ying. The design institute of Tsinghua University was engaged to restore and keep the old street grain known as the three streets and five lanes. Older shopping lanes such as Daizi Street, Cuihua Street and Zhubao Street lie outside the rebuilt quarter and remain ordinary working streets.

What to look for

• The site of the Tiezhu Wanshougong, the temple from which the worldwide Wanshougong and Jiangxi guild halls take their name
• The three streets and five lanes street pattern, including Qiaobu Street, Qipan Street, Guangrunmen Street and Wanshougong Lane
• The former Nanchang General Chamber of Commerce, one of the 45 buildings counted as historic fabric
• The Yutai salt house and Chizhi Hall among the late Qing Gan-style vernacular buildings
• Intangible-heritage practices presented in the quarter such as Gan hair embroidery, the Hongzhou tea ceremony and Yuzhang porcelain carving

Location & getting there

Getting to Wanshou Palace Historic District

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

• Search for 万寿宫历史文化街区 with 南昌市 and 西湖区.