Liwan Old Town

Liwan takes its name from Lychee Bay, the network of waterways that historically penetrated this part of the city. The bay was progressively filled through the twentieth century, but the name persists and the neighbourhood retains the character of a historic commercial and residential quarter that was once Guangzhou's western hub.

The qilou — arcade-house — is the defining building type. Ground-floor arcades create a continuous covered walkway beneath upper-floor residential and commercial space, a building form that spread from southern China and Southeast Asia in the colonial period as a climatic response to heat and monsoon rain. The Shang Xia Jiu (Upper Lower Ninth) street and its extensions contain what is probably the longest and most coherent surviving qilou streetscape in Guangdong.

The Chen Clan Ancestral Hall, built in 1894, is the architectural set piece of the neighbourhood. Constructed by the Chen families of Guangdong province as a combined ancestral temple and examination preparation academy, it uses every decorative technique available to Cantonese craftsmen of the period: roof ridges covered in polychrome pottery figurines from the Shiwan kilns, carved wooden screens, cast iron railings, and plaster relief panels. The building now functions as the Guangdong Folk Arts Museum.

Wende Road, running north from the ancestral hall, has historically been Guangzhou's main antique and curio street. The market here runs seven days; stalls sell Qing-dynasty ceramics, Republican-era enamelware, Cultural Revolution memorabilia, and a substantial volume of reproductions. Knowledge of the subject or a reliable local guide is advisable before purchasing.