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Shawan Aancient Town of Panyu

Shawan Aancient Town of Panyu

Shawan Aancient Town of Panyu
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InnaYYZ
Toronto, Canada1,494 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Aug 2019
I most enjoyed walking on the narrow side street, many of which have small shops selling a variety of goods. The oyster shell buildings were the most awesome for me to view. Well worth a visit, but can take 45 minutes or loner to get to if using a combination of subways and bus.
Written 18 August 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

KodoDrummer
Buenos Aires, Argentina70,600 contributions
4.0 of 5 bubbles
Apr 2018 • Friends
Much of this over 800-year ancient, Song Dynasty town still exists and is well-preserved today, but a walk through the area show that many buildings and other constructions were added during the past century. Theme pavilions and other significant structures in this ancient town include, Shawan He’s Ancestral Temple, Shawan of Guangdong Music Hall, He Binglin Memorial Hall, Pavilion Tower, Lv Shui Qin Shan Tower, Wenfeng Pogada, Fengshui Pogada, Wen Feng Tower, Sanren Hall, He Shaoxia Former Residence, He Zihai (Imperial scholar in the Ming dynasty) Former Residence, Academician He Binglin Memorial Hall, Huang Youzhen Arboritae Art Gallery, An Ning West Street, Ancient Town Study House, Agrarian Life Hall, Acadenician He Binglin Memorial Hall, a large pond, He’s Ancestral Temple (locally known as Liu Geng Tang), Liu-Geng-Tang Ancestral Hall, Praying Hall-Xiang Xian Hall (460 square metres), and more.

In addition to its ancient architecture and sculptures, Shawan Ancient Town if famous for its Canton music, dragon and lion dances, Shawan cuisine (such as He Liu Tang fried shrimp, He Liu Tang fried beef, chicken stuffed with bean sprouts, braised goose with mint leaves, ginger milk, water chestnut rice porridge, and many more), dragon boat dueling for champion status, and over 100 songs (such as Dragon Boats Fighting for Championship, The Hungry Horse Shaking the Bells, etc.).

There are numerous eateries, souvenir shops, ancient buildings and walkways, beautiful works of art, and public toilets spread throughout the town.

Information is given on the Hang Flower customs associated with the recording of the names of newly born males.

There are a few oyster shell wall buildings, including the famed Oyster Shell House. This is unique to me. A sign indicates that it was build from oyster shells obtained from the Pearl River Delta area. Benefits attributed to these walls include fire prevention, pest control, noise prevention, retention of heat in winter months, and keeping the rooms cool on hot summer days. The oyster walls have maintained their strength and durability over hundreds of years, and show little wear and tear.

Throughout the town, there are lots of signs indicating the direction of the major attractions.

We found everyone we meet to be friendly, polite, and helpful.

Getting there: Shawan Ancient Town is located in the Panyu District of Guangzhou. An inexpensive way of getting here from downtown Guangzhou, is to take Bus #67 from Line 3’s Shiqiao Station. On our day trip, we toured three Panyu District tourist attraction on the same day, being Nan Yue Garden, Baomo Garden, and Shawan Ancient Town. Bus #67 took us to all three.

Before I commence my trips, I take a photo of my destination names in both English and Chinese. Then enroute, I’ll ask for directions whenever I am concerned that I might not be going the right way.

Travel Tip re toilets: There are many public, restaurant, and other toilets throughout Guangzhou. However, few supply tissue. Thus, to be safe, always carry an adequate supply of tissue. Most of these toilets are fairly dirty, have water for washing, but supply nothing to dry yourself with.
Written 28 April 2018
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

hkcw
Hong Kong, China192 contributions
4.0 of 5 bubbles
Feb 2014 • Family
Went to visit this historical town with my family over the Lunar New Year holiday and surprisingly it was very good!

Try to avoid the main street when you first go into the old town, it is very commercialised and not too interesting. Take some time to go into the back streets where the real historical buildings are.

What I liked:
- The architecture is amazing. Because of the humidity of the area, all the buildings were built using stone, oyster shells and brick, so they were very well preserved compared to wooden architecture in other parts of China. The decoration detailing in the rooftops and walls were beautiful.
- Historical city wall, there's a really cool wall cross-section protected by glass which clearly shows the different building materials used in the Yuan, Ming, Ching and PRC eras.
- Unlike some other ancient towns around China, there are still people living in this village and they are very open.
- 留耕堂 is a must-see, but only if you can read Chinese. It is a shrine for the Ho-family, which was an aristocratic family dating back to the Qin dynasty (~200BC). It lists the entire family history, where they moved, the academic achievements through the generations. Most interesting was a detailing of how the family was run, how much money each son got, the different positions they held, how they run the land etc.

Food: Avoid the place selling the ginger milk desserts (姜撞奶) the hygiene standards of this place are horrible and the famous desserts are not that good. The versions in Macau are much better! Do try the dumplings at 當當雲吞, the environment is pretty grim but the dumplings are good, 5RMB for 16 dumplings or 8RMB for 32 dumplings!
Written 2 February 2014
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

PushExplore
Singapore, Singapore4,951 contributions
4.0 of 5 bubbles
Mar 2019 • Solo
Visit to the Shawan Ancient Town of Panyu was nice since the weather was rather warm. So we ended up exploring this place fairly easily. A nice way to spend half a day.
Written 18 March 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Meagan S
Toronto, Canada115 contributions
4.0 of 5 bubbles
Oct 2017 • Solo
Decided to visit Shawan and took the metro - have to admit it was quite the experience taking their metro system - took line 3 and got off at Shiqao - from there I was told that it was easier to take a motorcycle taxi than to navigate with a bus. The town was interesting to walk through - with numerous signs for tourists to navigate to the next important site - some had entrance fees - architecture was very interesting especially the buildings where the walls were made from oyster shells - which was a typical building material for this area - overall worth the trip to visit - on my way back to the metro - I took a local bus & the bus driver kindly notified me when I reached the metro.
Written 3 October 2017
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Douglas M
Guangzhou, China3,076 contributions
4.0 of 5 bubbles
Sept 2016 • Couples
There must be hundreds of these 'ancient' towns dotted around China. ShaWan is better than most as there are places to visit other than streets of small shops selling identical tourist tat.
We visited the Friday after the Mid-Autumn Festival. A national holiday so it was rather busy but so is everywhere on these days..
We bought tickets for the three 'halls' to visit at the entrance next to the large white rabbit. Our tickets were at a promotional price of 30RMB, usual price 80 RMB. Ticket has a QR code for a audio tour guide.
Walk past the little kiosks and then you're in the town.
We visited the Liu-Geng-Tang Ancestral Hall, your ticket gets stamped. Then we strolled along the narrow streets towards the ShaWan Music Hall. A bit different from the usual temples and homes, with a few musical instruments and scores but not much else. At the other end of Middle Street is Academinician He Bing Lin Memorial Hall, he's was a local lad. He was involved in the development of China's nuclear bomb after being at Indiana University. Lots of stuff in English and well worth a visit.
Middle Street is the square for the cafes. Nothing spectacular but good value. No McDonalds, KFC or Starbucks! One or two 'bars' looked really interesting but SWMBO wasn't keen on darkening their doors.
Popped into a few other places, interesting but you need a translator!
Lots of photo opportunities for narrow allyways and roofs.
I've said 2-3 hours for a visit, but double that if you want to explore all the nooks and crannies.
.
Written 18 September 2016
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Douglas M
Guangzhou, China3,076 contributions
4.0 of 5 bubbles
Sept 2018 • Couples
SWMBO and I visited the town a couple of years ago (TA reviewed), so it was interesting to see what had changed. The most obvious changes were a very smart new first school complete with running track and parade ground, and lots of new information and history signs with English translations have appeared around the town.

We got to the town by car, we hired our usual driver and his car for the day for ¥400. We also pay for his lunch and any road tolls and entrance fees, while he picks up the tab for petrol and parking.

Note: I reckon getting there by public transport would be a real pain. Take line 3 metro to PanuYu Square and then taxi to ShaWan. It would be a longish journey so haggling the price would be a lot cheaper than having the meter running.

Anyway, after lunch at a very nice ‘countryside’ restaurant we arrived at the town. SMBO bought ‘all-places’ entrance tickets for 40 Yuan as we entered the very nice LiuGengTang temple. There’s another temple next door but I’m a one-temple-a-day man!

Through the narrow streets we wandered, stopping to read the ‘history’ signs, peer into doorways, and in my case photograph alleys. There’s something about alleys I like but it’s rare to find one not cluttered with hire-bicycles, motorcycles, rubbish bins, air-conditioning units and satellite dishes.

We reached the main square where I visited the GuangDong Music Museum (TA reviewed) while SWMBO stayed outside and drank tea and chatted to our driver.
To the right of the Music Museum is the memorial hall to He BingLin which is well-worth a visit but since we’d done that 2 years ago we went left down the narrow street where there’s plenty of ‘twee’ tourist tat shops which attract SWMBO like iron filings to a magnet. We passed the house of He BoZhang a famous Cantonese musician, looks interesting but that’s for the next visit.

Anyway, while SWMBO explored a tat shop I mooched around and found a history sign for JinWei Lane, a lovely uncluttered land so I pretended I’d passed my Imperial exam and would give thanks at the Pavilion Tower. I was also intrigued because three months ago we found Wenta Tower at ShenJing village (TA reviewed) which served a similar function. At the end of JinWei Lane there are a flight of steps and at the top is a lovely tower and the surrounding fences adorned with red-ribbons. Probably GaoKao (the national university entrance exam) successes. Congratulations to all of them.

Next to the tower is the teacher’s house. I just wandered in. There was nobody about. This place looks as though it hasn’t been touched for years and years. What a find!
On the side of the tower opposite the house is a well where students would wash and refresh themselves before sitting the exams. The history signs bring the place to life!

I walked back down another alley and arrived at the tat-shop just as SWMBO emerged with a bag of bowls and ornaments. She promptly disappeared into another one and emerged, thankfully after only a few minutes, came out with a necklace.

We walked on past the new first school in a small square. This is where the ancient and modern towns merge. We should have turned around, but we carried on into the maze of alley ways lined with newish houses. Eventually we emerged, after passing small factories (one with a grave) and workshops with some rather nice metal shaping machines, on to the main road. From then on it was downhill all the way to where the driver had parked his car three hours before. Then it was a good hour’s drive back to the city in the rush-hour.

There’s lots to see in the town and I’m sure there’s much we haven’t seen in our two visits. The history signs are brilliant and really help you to understand what you are seeing.

Well worth a third visit.
Written 6 September 2018
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

pvandeven
Sydney, Australia16 contributions
4.0 of 5 bubbles
Oct 2016
We took the metro to Panyu and then a taxi to Shawan, and caught a bus back to the metro station. We enjoyed the visit and meandered through all the ancient alleyways and hidden corners. The traditional architecture was fascinating and somewhat different from that we had experienced in other provinces. The locals were most gracious. With our rudimentary Chinese, we mistakingly thought a jewelery gallery was a tea house, but nonetheless the owner quickly prepared some tea to quench our thirst!! hehehe
Written 12 November 2016
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

chris_b_PNth
Palmerston North, New Zealand26 contributions
4.0 of 5 bubbles
Apr 2016 • Friends
I was brought here by my supplier when we had a bit of free time before my flight out. I thought it very interesting. The dessert shop was especially nice. The walls made from oyster shells were amazing. A very nice clan house too. A mixture of old and newer structures but a nice place to walk. Very well maintained.
Written 17 May 2016
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Carole
Sainte-Suzanne, Reunion Island25 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Spend an afternoon to visit the village with my friends. I really had a good time. The village was very clean and the map we got from the “Tourism Center” (or something like that) really hepled us to get straight to the places we were intersted in.
Above all things, I was surprised by the 姜埋奶 (“burried ginger milk” they say...) that I discovered there... It simply was absolutely delicious!! So, one advice: just taste it!! :)
Written 22 February 2015
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

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SHAWAN AANCIENT TOWN OF PANYU (2024) All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go (with Photos)

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