Guanxi Wei (Hakka Walled Village) Scenic Area
Heritage SiteGanzhou, China
Visiting Guanxi Wei (Hakka Walled Village) Scenic Area
- Ticket
- $9
- Rating
- 4A
About Guanxi Wei (Hakka Walled Village) Scenic Area
The Guanxi Wei scenic area in Guanxi town, part of Longnan county under Ganzhou, is one of the most remarkable concentrations of Hakka fortified houses, or "wei," in southern Jiangxi. As a 4A-level scenic area and a nationally protected heritage site, it is built around the Guanxi New Wei, a vast two-hundred-year-old earthen and timber complex so monumental in scale that it has been likened to a "Roman castle of the East." For travelers interested in vernacular architecture and Hakka culture, it is one of the most impressive sights in the Ganzhou region.
The complex is made up of several wei of different styles and periods, with the Guanxi New Wei at its heart. These great houses were built by Hakka families as combined residences, storehouses, and fortifications, their thick outer walls, single narrow gateways, and tiers of inward-facing rooms designed to shelter an entire clan during times of trouble. Inside, carved timber, tiled courtyards, wells, and ancestral halls reveal the sophistication of Hakka domestic life, while the surrounding setting of streams, green hills, orchards, and small bridges gives the whole scene a pastoral, almost painterly quality.
A visit takes about two hours, walking from one great house to the next and exploring the courtyards and residential wings that are open to the public. Spring and autumn are the most pleasant seasons, when the mild weather suits a ramble through the lanes and orchards, while summer brings lush greenery to the surrounding hills. Signage is aimed primarily at domestic visitors, so some background reading on Hakka migration and architecture enriches the experience.
Guanxi Wei sits in Longnan, well south of downtown Ganzhou, and is best treated as part of a focused trip to the Longnan area, often combined with the nearby South Wudang Mountain for a full day of scenery and architecture. For anyone drawn to living architecture and the story of the Hakka people who settled southern Jiangxi, it is one of the most memorable and photographically rich stops on any Ganzhou itinerary.
Cultural heritage
Guanxi Xinwei stands in Guanxi village, Longnan city, Jiangxi, begun in 1798 in the Jiaqing reign of the Qing. It is the best-preserved, largest and most fully appointed of Gannan's Hakka roundhouses, hailed as an "Eastern Roman castle" and a "Forbidden City among the people." Square in plan and covering more than ten thousand square metres, with watchtowers at its four corners, it unites ancestral hall, dwellings, granary and well as a clan fortress to live in and to defend. The Gannan Hakka roundhouses, led by those of Longnan, have entered China's World Heritage tentative list; the Guanxi cluster is built from eight roundhouses—Guanxi Xinwei, Xichang Wei, Tianxin Wei, Penggao Wei and others.
Visiting: Passing through the towering gate into the courtyard, the tier-on-tier of halls, rooms and corridors is breathtaking; the corner watchtowers and the loopholes in the walls tell the story of clans defending themselves. The stream before the roundhouse, the distant hills and the arched bridge set each other off, letting one truly feel the architectural wisdom of the Hakka living together as a clan.
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