The Complete Collection of Chaozhou Residential Architecture - De'anli

Guangdong Trip No.20 - Puning De'anli 🏯Historic Site Name: De'anli 📌Address: Nancun, Hongyang Town, Gucheng, Puning City, Jieyang City, Guangdong Province 🏛Cultural Protection Level: 5th batch of Guangdong Provincial Cultural Protection in 2008 🎫Admission Fee: 🆓 🚗After getting a car from Shantou, our self-driving tour in Southern Guangdong finally began! 🏯Getting off the highway at Puning, we were completely attracted by the ancient buildings by the roadside and decided to get off the highway to explore. Unexpectedly, this whim led us into a century-old architectural complex known as the 'Chaozhou Residential Museum' - De'anli. 🏠This little-known ancient village was built by the family of Fang Yao, the late Qing Dynasty naval commander and famous general of Guangdong, and his brothers. It has a history of 150 years and is the largest and most well-preserved large-scale mansion-style residential building complex in the Chaozhou area. 🏡De'anli was built in the tenth year of the Tongzhi era (1871 AD), and since it was a family residence, the entire complex took 20 years to complete. Its grand scale, intricate construction, and exquisite design are considered masterpieces of Chaozhou residential architecture. Even after 150 years of weathering, the descendants of the Fang family still live here, thriving from generation to generation... 🏚De'anli encompasses the complete collection of Chaozhou residential architecture, including various architectural forms: large ancestral halls, three halls, five rooms, four-point gold, descending tiger, four-horse carriage, five-wall connection, one-legged lion, and even rare architectural forms in the Chaozhou area. As such, De'anli is regarded as the 'Complete Collection of Chaozhou Residential Architectural Forms' and is considered a museum of Lingnan architectural decorative art. 🏣The De'anli architectural complex covers a total area of nearly 60,000 square meters, divided into several areas including the old fort, middle fort, new De'anli, and Shaoyuan. Among them, the architectural layout of the old fort is 'hundreds of birds facing the phoenix', and the middle fort and new De'anli are 'four horses pulling a carriage'. The three forts are connected, with a total of 773 rooms. 🏘De'anli's drainage system is also remarkable - the traditional open channel method, after 'nine turns and eighteen bends', eventually flows into the stream in front of the fort, through Baili Bridge, and into the Rong River. It is amazing that in this drainage system, whether the water flows out from the patio or from the tributary into the middle ditch and then into the large ditch, the water always flows through the middle. Water flowing through the middle is the Chinese character - '衍', which means endless and thriving for thousands of generations. Long streets, deep alleys, red doors, high walls... Time seems to flow backward; Halls, pavilions, carved beams, painted rafters, wooden doors, flower windows... In a blink of an eye, it's already been a thousand years; De'anli, I'm glad I didn't miss you!