Relocation and Protection Plan for Traditional Buildings in Guangzhou's Nanwan Village Approved

Recently, the relocation and protection plan for traditional buildings in Nanwan Village, Huangpu District, Guangzhou, was officially approved. This marks a crucial step forward for Nanwan Village on the path of coordinated urban renewal and historical and cultural preservation.

Nestled against mountains and facing the water with a surrounding network of waterways, the ancient Lingnan village of Nanwan is a significant relic site of the Fuxu Ancient Port, a starting point of the Maritime Silk Road. It boasts a unique spatial layout of "mountains, rivers, fields, rocks, and villages," carrying forward the cultural lineage of Cantonese water towns since the Ming and Qing dynasties. As vital representatives of the village's 28 traditional buildings, the folk residences at No. 2, Nanji Hexingli and No. 17, Jiejia Street showcase the classic Cantonese "three-room and two-corridor" architectural layout and a blended Chinese-Western style, respectively. Their core heritage elements—such as fair-faced brick walls, exquisite traditional grey-paste sculptures, and Western-style arches—serve as vivid testaments to Lingnan architectural craftsmanship.

This architectural relocation and protection effort goes beyond a simple "physical move"; it represents a deep integration of heritage building revitalization, cultural tourism, and community building. In the future, the relocated buildings will be linked with historical relics like the Mai Clan Ancestral Hall and the cliff inscriptions of Changchun Rock. They will be woven into the "Ancient Fuxu Waters" Maritime Silk Road tourist route, serving as vital platforms to showcase Lingnan folk customs, intangible cultural heritage skills, and historical anecdotes, thereby injecting profound cultural significance into the Nanwan Water Town Cultural Tourism Destination. (Text by He Ruiqi)