Central Treasure - Bozhou Huaxilou!

Huaxilou, originally named Daguandi Temple, is also known as Shanxi Shaanxi Guild Hall. Its brick carvings, wood carvings, and colored paintings are mainly based on local opera dramas, so everyone is used to calling it Huaxilou. Huaxilou was first built in 1656, located in Xianning Street, Guanyu, north of Bozhou City, Anhui Province. Shanxi businessman Wang Bi and Shaanxi businessman Zhu Kongling both participated in the fundraising, and then experienced several expansions over more than a hundred years during the Kangxi and Qianlong periods. The gate of Huaxilou is a three-story archway frame, imitation wood structure, the water-milled brick wall is filled with brick carvings, including characters, carriages, cities, mountains, flowers, birds and beasts, etc. The main hall of Huaxilou is the main building, and the theater building is next to it. The main hall is 10 meters high, with a courtyard on each side, containing the book carvings of Yuan Zhao Mengshun and Qing Liang Xian. Then there is the main hall, with a wooden statue of Guan Yu in the hall, and the images of Guan Ping and Zhou Cang on both sides, unfortunately destroyed during the Japanese invasion. The stage of the theater building is convex-shaped, with the four golden characters "Performing Ancient Style Today" in the center of the stage. The east side of the theater building is the bell tower, the west side is the drum tower, the front door is in the middle of the two towers, it is an imitation wood structure three-story archway water-milled brick facade building, with exquisite brick carvings inlaid in it. The layout of Daguandi Temple is facing south, with the main hall as the main building in the courtyard, the theater building as a foil, and the sitting building on both sides, where you can watch the opera and drink. There is a deep path courtyard on each side of the main hall, and there is a Zen hall on the west side. The bell tower and drum tower are on both sides of the theater building. The front wall of the mountain gate of Daguandi Temple has three passages, which are the main gate, the bell tower, and the drum tower. The entire wall is full of various reliefs, all made of water-milled bricks, all hand-carved, and have a history of more than two hundred years. There are nine colored paintings in the caisson above the stage of Huaxilou, including "Dragon and Phoenix Bring Auspiciousness", "Cranes Dance to the Sun", "Deer Spirit Offers Longevity" and other patterns. Between the pillars, there are two heavy beams, with lotus hanging lions on the beams, divided into two or three sections, each section is a large wooden through-carving, with clear layers, which complements the front door brick carving. Address: Xianning Street, Guanyu, North City, Bozhou City, Anhui Province. Opening hours are 8:00-17:00 The ticket is 50 yuan/person Huaxilou