Tan Xiaomi

IT is difficult to locate the Zhang family’s ancestral hall among Dongmen’s skyscrapers, even for a Shenzhener who has lived in the city for nearly 20 years.

The 3-century-old ancestral hall, built during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and restored in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), is regarded as a heritage site by Luohu District Government.

This writer spent two afternoons walking through notorious village backstreets to find the hall. Not even taxi drivers, patrol policemen, local residents or fruit vendors who have run small businesses in the area for years, could tell me where the hall was.

This may explain why the building has become a small shelter for a dozen migrant workers, who also act as its security guards.

History of the hall

People with the family name Zhang have been living in Shenzhen for 600 years. The ancestral hall is said to be the last relic left by the Zhangs in the area. Like all the other Chinese clans, they built the hall in memory of their ancestors, who started moving to South China from Henan Province in the Qin (221-206 B.C.) and Han (206 B.C.-A.D. 220) dynasties.

The 400-square-meter hall has witnessed the city’s miraculous growth.

Zhang Songhua, one of the family’s descendants and vice general manager of the Hubei Industry Co. Ltd., is the 34th generation of the family in Shenzhen.

In 1925, the country’s first premier, Zhou Enlai, gave a speech here as the then director of the political department of Huangpu Military Academy, the most famous military academy in China’s modern history.

The hall was also a secret liaison office for the country’s postal bureau to maintain contact with Hong Kong and foreign countries during times of war in the 1930s.

It also used to be a sacred place for villagers in Hubei Village with only male villagers allowed in, before becoming a heritage site in recent years.

Hidden among

skyscrapers

The hall is now empty as all its furniture and decorations were removed in early years. Four printed pictures of ancestors who lived in the Ming and Qing dynasties, now hang on the wall. Cheap incense burners that can be easily found in most markets have been placed under the pictures. Red couplets from the last Chinese Spring Festival have been left on the front door.

Visitors can still identify and imagine the history of the hall through surviving stone carvings on its pillars and eaves.

Just a few meters away, the area in front of the hall becomes a discharging and packing place for nearby kitchenware retailers and during business hours, large trucks are likely to hide its front door.

Without a crown as a provincial- or city-level heritage, the site has received less protection than those in nearby urban villages.

One of the watchmen, playing mahjong with another three at the entrance, told the Shenzhen Daily that very few people visit the place now.

For them, the hall is a place to live, their winter clothes, underwear and shoes placed in the doorway for sunshine.

Other things to do

If you have time, walk the narrow lanes of the huge Hubei Village. You will find the scene has changed greatly from the countryside of the 1980s.

Buildings there are extremely close to each other as villagers want to build as much as they can for their rent. Most people living there are migrants from across the country.

Try the restaurants on nearby Leyuan Road after finishing your tour where the pure Cantonese-style seafood makes a perfect end to your day.

Tan Xiaomi

IT is difficult to locate the Zhang family’s ancestral hall among Dongmen’s skyscrapers, even for a Shenzhener who has lived in the city for nearly 20 years.

The 3-century-old ancestral hall, built during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and restored in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), is regarded as a heritage site by Luohu District Government.

This writer spent two afternoons walking through notorious village backstreets to find the hall. Not even taxi drivers, patrol policemen, local residents or fruit vendors who have run small businesses in the area for years, could tell me where the hall was.

This may explain why the building has become a small shelter for a dozen migrant workers, who also act as its security guards.

History of the hall

People with the family name Zhang have been living in Shenzhen for 600 years. The ancestral hall is said to be the last relic left by the Zhangs in the area. Like all the other Chinese clans, they built the hall in memory of their ancestors, who started moving to South China from Henan Province in the Qin (221-206 B.C.) and Han (206 B.C.-A.D. 220) dynasties.

The 400-square-meter hall has witnessed the city’s miraculous growth.

Zhang Songhua, one of the family’s descendants and vice general manager of the Hubei Industry Co. Ltd., is the 34th generation of the family in Shenzhen.

In 1925, the country’s first premier, Zhou Enlai, gave a speech here as the then director of the political department of Huangpu Military Academy, the most famous military academy in China’s modern history.

The hall was also a secret liaison office for the country’s postal bureau to maintain contact with Hong Kong and foreign countries during times of war in the 1930s.

It also used to be a sacred place for villagers in Hubei Village with only male villagers allowed in, before becoming a heritage site in recent years.

Hidden among

skyscrapers

The hall is now empty as all its furniture and decorations were removed in early years. Four printed pictures of ancestors who lived in the Ming and Qing dynasties, now hang on the wall. Cheap incense burners that can be easily found in most markets have been placed under the pictures. Red couplets from the last Chinese Spring Festival have been left on the front door.

Visitors can still identify and imagine the history of the hall through surviving stone carvings on its pillars and eaves.

Just a few meters away, the area in front of the hall becomes a discharging and packing place for nearby kitchenware retailers and during business hours, large trucks are likely to hide its front door.

Without a crown as a provincial- or city-level heritage, the site has received less protection than those in nearby urban villages.

One of the watchmen, playing mahjong with another three at the entrance, told the Shenzhen Daily that very few people visit the place now.

For them, the hall is a place to live, their winter clothes, underwear and shoes placed in the doorway for sunshine.

Other things to do

If you have time, walk the narrow lanes of the huge Hubei Village. You will find the scene has changed greatly from the countryside of the 1980s.

Buildings there are extremely close to each other as villagers want to build as much as they can for their rent. Most people living there are migrants from across the country.

Try the restaurants on nearby Leyuan Road after finishing your tour where the pure Cantonese-style seafood makes a perfect end to your day.