Li Dan

LOCATED 50 kilometers from downtown Shenzhen, the biggest Hakka residence in the city covers 16,600 square meters in Dawan Village, Pingshan, Longgang District.

Surrounded by modern buildings, the ancient residence, now a Hakka folk culture museum, appears strikingly grand, if a bit of dilapidated, to outsiders. Like all other Hakka residences, it has a half-moon-shaped pool right outside the main entrance, to ensure good fortune.

Decorated with red lanterns, the thick residence walls, which were once set on fire by Japanese, have small gun holes which were used in times of war.

Archaeologists believe the founder of Dawan Ancestral Residence is Zeng Chuanzhou, the 71st-generation descendant of saint Zeng Sen, who was one of the most well-known disciples of Confucius during the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 B.C.). Zeng Chuanzhou was appointed to the position of “rulinlang,” equivalent to that of a mayor today, during the regime of Qing Emperor Hongli (1736-1796).

Over the years, Zeng’s family migrated from their hometown in East China’s Shandong Province to the south along with other Hakka people. Folklore has it that Zeng Chuanzhou moved out of his parents’ house when he was young, took up odd jobs like transporting goods and accumulated a small fortune, but soon lost his money in gambling. People would not lend him money to build a home, which drove him to cut off his left thumb as a sign that he would abstain from gambling. He later prospered, running oil mills and stores in Longgang and Huizhou, and was later appointed to a position in the government. It was then that he began to build the residence, which was completed in 1791.

The residence was put on Guangdong’s list of protected historical sites in the year 2002, according to Li Guangwen, curator of the museum.

“The residence is laid out on a square patch of land, with the family temple at the center. There are also watch towers at the four corners, connected by corridors on the top of the walls as thick as one meter and as tall as six meters,” he said.

It must have taken a lot of effort and a huge sum of money to build the structure. The residence’s walls required nearly 5,000 cubic meters of mud, sand and stones to complete. Glutinous rice and sugar boiled with water were used as glue to put the building materials together. Neat alleys — three from north to south and six from east to west — separate more than 400 rooms built of mud and wood. The family temple uses the typical layout of residences in North China, proof that the owners had traveled all the way south to settle down here. There is a well-conceived drainage system that helps discharge rainwater into the pond in front of the residence. The clever Zengs also built a sand dam on a creek to the southeast of the structure to supply water to the residents.

More than 300 people from the Zeng family lived in the residence at its peak. Many migrated to Hong Kong and foreign countries in the 1970s.

Pingshan Subdistrict called on local residents to donate traditional Hakka furniture, farm tools and other utensils to the museum in 2005. As a result, one can see a few rooms furnished with carved wooden beds and red wooden tables today.

Few visitors come to the residence except on occasions like the Spring Festival, when descendants of the Zeng family return to honor their forefathers. If you happen to drop in on a warm winter morning, you are most likely to see a stray dog enjoy the sunshine and quiet of the empty courtyard decorated with papaya trees.

Li Dan

LOCATED 50 kilometers from downtown Shenzhen, the biggest Hakka residence in the city covers 16,600 square meters in Dawan Village, Pingshan, Longgang District.

Surrounded by modern buildings, the ancient residence, now a Hakka folk culture museum, appears strikingly grand, if a bit of dilapidated, to outsiders. Like all other Hakka residences, it has a half-moon-shaped pool right outside the main entrance, to ensure good fortune.

Decorated with red lanterns, the thick residence walls, which were once set on fire by Japanese, have small gun holes which were used in times of war.

Archaeologists believe the founder of Dawan Ancestral Residence is Zeng Chuanzhou, the 71st-generation descendant of saint Zeng Sen, who was one of the most well-known disciples of Confucius during the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 B.C.). Zeng Chuanzhou was appointed to the position of “rulinlang,” equivalent to that of a mayor today, during the regime of Qing Emperor Hongli (1736-1796).

Over the years, Zeng’s family migrated from their hometown in East China’s Shandong Province to the south along with other Hakka people. Folklore has it that Zeng Chuanzhou moved out of his parents’ house when he was young, took up odd jobs like transporting goods and accumulated a small fortune, but soon lost his money in gambling. People would not lend him money to build a home, which drove him to cut off his left thumb as a sign that he would abstain from gambling. He later prospered, running oil mills and stores in Longgang and Huizhou, and was later appointed to a position in the government. It was then that he began to build the residence, which was completed in 1791.

The residence was put on Guangdong’s list of protected historical sites in the year 2002, according to Li Guangwen, curator of the museum.

“The residence is laid out on a square patch of land, with the family temple at the center. There are also watch towers at the four corners, connected by corridors on the top of the walls as thick as one meter and as tall as six meters,” he said.

It must have taken a lot of effort and a huge sum of money to build the structure. The residence’s walls required nearly 5,000 cubic meters of mud, sand and stones to complete. Glutinous rice and sugar boiled with water were used as glue to put the building materials together. Neat alleys — three from north to south and six from east to west — separate more than 400 rooms built of mud and wood. The family temple uses the typical layout of residences in North China, proof that the owners had traveled all the way south to settle down here. There is a well-conceived drainage system that helps discharge rainwater into the pond in front of the residence. The clever Zengs also built a sand dam on a creek to the southeast of the structure to supply water to the residents.

More than 300 people from the Zeng family lived in the residence at its peak. Many migrated to Hong Kong and foreign countries in the 1970s.

Pingshan Subdistrict called on local residents to donate traditional Hakka furniture, farm tools and other utensils to the museum in 2005. As a result, one can see a few rooms furnished with carved wooden beds and red wooden tables today.

Few visitors come to the residence except on occasions like the Spring Festival, when descendants of the Zeng family return to honor their forefathers. If you happen to drop in on a warm winter morning, you are most likely to see a stray dog enjoy the sunshine and quiet of the empty courtyard decorated with papaya trees.