ABOUT GUANGZHOU
    Shamian: old times hidden in architectural details
    2018-12-26

    This place features good view, western-style houses, kilometer-long flower street, ancient trees. Shamian is full of exotic customs, and the western-style buildings have become part of the Shamian, witnessing the changes of the times. Now they have become a historical heritage, telling people the story of the city and this small island.


    Originally a sandbank covering an area of 0.3 square kilometers, Guangzhou Shamian, named “Shicuizhou” borders Baietan in the south and Shaji (now 623 Road) in the north. Nearly 100 existing buildings in Shamian reflect the Western architecture and art and integrate Lingnan culture. In 1996, the Shamian architectural complex was announced by the State Council as a national key cultural relics protection unit. The Shamian is a kaleidoscope of modern political, cultural and economic changes in Guangzhou.

    The early Shamian buildings were built in 1861 when Shamian was first established and up to the late 19th century. From the 1890s to the 1930s, it was a period of large-scale construction of the Shamian concession. A large number of European-style antique eclecticism styles and early modernist styles were preserved here.