Chongqing Huguang Guild Hall
The Huguang Guild Hall is located on one side of the ancient Dongshuimen Gate by the Yangtze River in Yuzhong District, Chongqing. It consists of three major guild halls surrounded by high walls: the Yuwang Palace, the Qi'an Guild Hall, and the Guangdong Guild Hall. The construction of the Chongqing Huguang Guild Hall began in the reign of Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty. After continuous renovations and expansions from the Qianlong era to the Guangxu era, it took on its present scale, with a history of nearly 300 years. At the end of 2003, the municipal and district governments of Chongqing invested nearly 200 million yuan in the protective restoration of the core building complex of the Huguang Guild Hall, and the project was completed in September 2005. The central area of the guild hall covers an area of 18,418 square meters. As a business organization of guilds in Chongqing established by foreign officials, gentry, scholars, and merchants through fund - raising during the reign of Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty, it is a large - scale and well - preserved ancient guild hall building complex in China. Three hundred years ago, the large - scale immigration movement represented by the "Huguang people moving to Sichuan", which involved more than a dozen provinces, forged the broad - mindedness of Chongqing people, including their inclusiveness, openness, unity, and progressiveness, as well as their character traits of perseverance, bravery, enthusiasm, and straightforwardness. The Chongqing Huguang Guild Hall not only preserves the material culture of guild hall architecture but also condenses the intangible culture of the immigrant spirit. In the past, present, and future, the Chongqing Huguang Guild Hall has always been an important cultural symbol that Chongqing people are proud of. The guild hall buildings are grand in scale, with a well - arranged layout. The halls are magnificent and stately, with simple and elegant styles. It is really not easy for them to have survived in the bustling downtown area full of high - rise buildings, and they are of great historical, artistic, and scientific value. The Huguang Guild Hall is also known as the Yuwang Temple, the Yuwang Palace, and the Chu Temple, where Emperor Yu is worshiped to suppress floods; the Qi'an Guild Hall is also called the Dizhu Palace, where the Dizhu (also known as Fuzhu) is worshiped to pray for happiness, good luck, and safety; the Guangdong Guild Hall is also known as the Nanhua Palace, where the Nanhua Patriarch Huineng is worshiped. Immigrants from various provinces, mainly from Huguang, entered Bashu, and local beliefs also entered Sichuan with them, thus forming a unique pattern of folk beliefs in Sichuan during the Qing Dynasty. During this period, the belief in Emperor Yu in the Bashu region also showed a unique phenomenon of "produced in Sichuan but worshiped in Hubei". Since its opening, the Chongqing Huguang Guild Hall has received more than ten million tourists from home and abroad. It has become a calling card of Chongqing and a monument of Chinese immigration culture, enjoying a high reputation at home and abroad. It condenses the reverence and pride of the ancestors in the Bashu region for Chinese culture, and is an important carrier and proof of the inheritance of Chinese civilization in the Bashu region, as well as an excellent stage where splendid history and modern culture shine together. There are more than ten thousand carved artworks such as wood carvings, stone carvings, and brick carvings in the existing guild hall buildings, all of which are exquisitely carved and amazing. Before the restoration of the guild hall, a large number of carvings from the Ming and Qing Dynasties were preserved. The themes are mainly patterns of character stories from "Journey to the West", "The Romance of the Western Chamber", "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", "Investiture of the Gods", and "Twenty - four Filial Piety", as well as patterns of dragons, phoenixes, animals, and various rare flowers and plants. This should be a kind of respect of the immigrants for the totems of their hometowns and is an outstanding representative of the southern carving art in the Ming and Qing Dynasties in China. In 2003, with the support of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, the National Tourism Administration and other departments, experts and teams for the restoration of cultural relic buildings from all over the country, such as Shandong, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Beijing, and Sichuan, spent nearly two years restoring and reconstructing the carved art preserved in the guild hall, making it reappear in the world. The carved works in the hall have a wide variety of themes, beautiful forms, glittering gilding, and vivid images. The antique style gives people a sense of beauty and shows the elegant aesthetic cultivation and superb craftsmanship of the ancients everywhere. As an early - established museum dedicated to immigration in China, the Huguang - to - Sichuan Immigration Museum, with the background of the "Huguang people moving to Sichuan", shows the historical background, economic factors, and immigration routes of the immigrants entering Sichuan from different angles, vividly and comprehensively reflecting this period of history. It is of great value for the research and education of folk customs, guild hall culture, architecture, and garden culture. By drawing on the strengths of others and bringing forth new ideas, it uses modern multimedia technology. Through the combination of sound, light, and electricity and a series of interactive experience activities, it allows tourists to experience the immigration path in person and feel the hardships of their ancestors' entrepreneurship. It restores the scenes of people from Hubei, Hunan, Guangdong, and Guangxi entering Sichuan by water and land, systematically introducing how the influx of commercial immigrants gradually made Chongqing an immigrant and commercial city. The Dongshuimen City Wall was first built during the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty, with a history of more than 600 years. Facing the Yangtze River and standing alone in the river, it is naturally perilous and imposing, presenting a typical ancient city wall with the characteristics of a mountain - city, and has high architectural scientific and artistic value. The long - standing historical process of the creation and evolution of the Dongshuimen Gate and the city wall records the changes of the former water wharf and the vicissitudes of the mother city of Chongqing, and also reflects the long history and profound culture of Chongqing. In 2000, it was announced as the first batch of municipal - level cultural relics protection units after Chongqing became a municipality directly under the Central Government, and in 2013, it was announced as a national key cultural relics protection unit. The rich historical and cultural connotations and unique ancient architectural forms of the Chongqing Huguang Guild Hall have attracted many film and television shooting agencies to come for location shooting, making it a popular location for film and television exterior shoots. Since its restoration and opening, it has provided exterior shooting locations for many film, television, variety, and photography programs such as "Wisdom Against the Sand - Hidden Squad", "Drunk in Luxury", "Spy War", "Chongqing in 1950", "High - Quality Bodyguard", "Luo Zuofu", "Eight Minutes of Warmth", "The Lie Detector", "Extreme Challenge", "The Twelve Fengwei Flavors", and "Celebrating the Chinese New Year".
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