Liancheng Peitian Ancient Village

Being a well preserved ancient Hakka village, Peitian Ancient Village (培田古村落) lies on the foot of the major scenic resort of China–Guanzhai Mountain in Liancheng County, Fujian Province. Since the Ming and the Qing Dynasties, the village has served as a key interchange station connecting official roads to Changting and Liancheng. The history of this “Peitian Ancient Folk House” is more than 800 years, which can date back to the Southern Song Dynasty.

Peitian Village is famous for its completely different architectural style. Consisting of over 30 beautiful houses with tall halls, 21 ancient ancestral temples, 6 studies, 2 ancient street-crossing honorific archways and one 1000-meter-long ancient street, the ancient folk house building mass is compact, in order, interspersed but harmonious, and arranged in a scientific and rational way. The materials of architecture are wooden and bricks.

The entire allocation of folk house architecture in Ming and Qing dynasty of Peitian is get to a higher level. Ancestral hall, house, temple, stele, laneway, channel and bridge etc. village architecture with tactful disposal is spectacle and elegant. Peitian folk house building mass represented by “Scholar-bureaucrat Residence”, “Yanqing Hall” and “Official Hall”. Each building is besprinkled with marvelous basso-relievoes, couplets, plaques and stone sculptures, all are exquisite in workmanship. Portraits or photos of ancestors were placed in every hall because the villagers believe ancestors are the most powerful men to bless and protect them.

Peitian folk house building mass, a xanadu with marvelous architectures, has become a must see place of interest in Fujian. Architecture experts and historians from all over the world praised highly of these architectures. Being a miracle in human’s history of architecture as well as a legacy of world’s culture, Peitian village was awarded “National Historical and Cultural Village” in 2005.