China's First Guild Hall (Sheqi)

These days, it's not uncommon to see various 'firsts' being used to attract attention and customers, such as the 'first yamen' I saw yesterday. I didn't have high hopes when I came here, but I found out that they weren't just boasting, they were really impressive. Before praising, let me give a pitfall reminder. There are two types of tickets, combined and single. The single ticket for the Shanxi-Shaanxi Guild Hall is 40, and the combined ticket is 72. But the other attractions are too weak, except for the Fire God Temple, which is barely worth a look. The others are basically a waste of time even if they're free. Fortunately, the attractions are all very concentrated, otherwise it would be depressing to walk around for half a day and see nothing. It's better to focus on visiting the Shanxi-Shaanxi Guild Hall. The reason why it's called the 'first guild hall' is firstly because of its large size and area. I've been to the Shanxi-Shaanxi Guild Halls in Bozhou, Liaocheng, Zhoukou and other places. Although each has its own merits in terms of detail, the one in Sheqi is more majestic and spectacular, whether in terms of individual buildings or overall scale. Secondly, what's commendable is that such a large and beautifully decorated building is well preserved. The main building is distributed along the central axis from south to north, consisting of four parts: the glazed wall, the hanging mirror tower, the main hall, and the Spring and Autumn Tower. Except for the 'Spring and Autumn Tower' which was destroyed, the rest are well preserved. In addition, the huge and gorgeous 'Two Dragons Playing with a Pearl' relief wall is very spectacular. It's 20 meters high and 13 meters wide, made of colored glazed ceramic bricks, with hollowed-out dragon carvings and brilliant colors. This is something that other Shanxi-Shaanxi Guild Halls don't have. As for stone carvings, wood carvings, and iron flagpoles, these are standard features of the Shanxi-Shaanxi Guild Hall. Although each here is very exquisite, they don't have an overwhelming advantage over the other guild halls. At least in terms of the intricacy and preservation of the wood carvings, it's not as good as the Huaxi Tower in Bozhou, and the preservation of the stone archway is not as good as the Guandi Temple in Zhoukou. I won't go into details about the others. It's not that this place is bad, but that everyone is strong. Sheqi County, Nanyang City, Henan Province, is not well-known because it's relatively far from the high-speed rail and highway, but this guild hall is definitely king-level. The construction period of the Shanxi-Shaanxi Guild Halls in various places basically coincided with the last climax of the history of ancient Chinese architecture. At that time, merchants from all over the country had amassed a lot of money. Out of a desire to show off their strength and compete, a huge amount of money was invested in the construction of guild halls everywhere. The Sheqi Shanxi-Shaanxi Guild Hall took more than 130 years to build. The construction of the main hall and its auxiliary buildings alone cost more than 8.8 million taels of silver, which is nearly 1.8 billion at a 1:200 exchange rate. The total cost is estimated to be close to 5 billion, which is breathtaking and far ahead.