lingnan culture

Guangzhou is a famous cultural city with a long history of more than 2,211 years, and it is one of the first historical and cultural cities in China promulgated by the State Council. In the long history, many places of interest, such as Nanyue King's Tomb, Guangxiao Temple, zhenhai tower, Liurong Temple, Nanhai Temple, Wuxian Temple, Huaisheng Temple, Chenjia Temple, Sacred Heart Hall, Sanyuan Palace, etc., all bear witness to the famous historical and cultural city of Guangzhou. Guangzhou, which combines the essence of Chinese and foreign cultures, has formed a unique Lingnan culture. Lingnan school of painting, Lingnan architecture, Lingnan gardens, Lingnan bonsai, Guangdong music, Cantonese opera, Cantonese cuisine, urban landscape and living customs all reflect the style of Lingnan culture.

tea drinking culture

"I can't forget drinking tea in Guangdong." People in Guangzhou love drinking tea, especially morning tea. When we meet in the morning, the greetings in other places are mostly "Have you eaten", while those in Guangzhou are often "Have you had enough tea?" Have you had tea? ）。 Drinking tea in Guangzhou actually means going to the teahouse, not only drinking tea, but also eating snacks, one cup and two pieces, which are leisurely and carefree; Drink not only morning tea, but also afternoon tea and evening tea; Not only fill your stomach, but also spread news, talk about friendship and negotiate business. It can be seen that drinking tea has gone beyond the category of "tea" in a certain sense and has become a way of social communication. Drinking tea constitutes a distinctive feature of Lingnan culture that is different from other cultures. The time-honored teahouses in Guangzhou include: Taotaoju, Luyuju, Afraid of Xiangju, Nanyuan, Beiyuan, Panxi, Datong, Huiru, Sanru, Duoru, Qiaoxin, Dexin, Zhengxin, Fulaiju, Xihuaju and Meizhenju.

Go to Flower Street

Guangzhou is also called Flower City. People in Guangzhou love flowers, and they can't grow up without them. Rich families will buy several pots of imported flowers with a pot of thousands of yuan. No matter how poor a family is, it is necessary to provide a pot of kumquat and several daffodils to the Qing Dynasty. On New Year's Eve, an old and small flower street is a tradition, and it is also the highlight of Guangzhou citizens. The flower street is also a visit to the Winter jasmine market, which started three or four days ago and ended with the climax of New Year's Eve. Every year, the municipal government makes great efforts to decorate it. After the opening of the flower market, when the lights were first on (traffic control was implemented), people walking in the flower street came one after another, and at 8 or 9 o'clock, people were like a tide, bustling and lively. The flower street is noisy and crowded, and it is inevitable to bump into each other, but people are all polite, especially modest and tolerant, and their faces are full of smiles and joy. Generally speaking, most of them are mainlanders a few days ago, because most mainlanders want to watch the CCTV annual party. Guangdong people seldom watch CCTV. After visiting the flower market on the 31th, they often go to sigh for tea at night. The flowers in the flower market are colorful and varied. Among the imported products are lavender in Europe, rich palm in Thailand, tulip in the Netherlands, rose in northern Europe, five generations living under one roof in South America, cuckoo in Belgium and so on. Domestic varieties include Daphne odora in Phnom Penh, Jiangxi, Clivia in Jilin, Peony in Luoyang and Narcissus in Zhangzhou. As the name suggests, the flower street is mainly for sightseeing and appreciation. If you buy it, you must buy a little, but it can be more or less to show your good luck. Therefore, couples will buy one or two roses, silver willows and lilies at most when they both travel through the flower market; And families choose traditional local kumquat, rich bamboo, peach blossom, rich tree, good fortune and so on. People in Guangzhou think that exotic flowers are beautiful, but most of them have no special symbolic significance, which can't satisfy the wishes of "peace" and "wealth" in the New Year. The purpose of the flower street is to touch some flowers and get rid of bad luck, and to have a good weather, happiness and peace in the coming year, that's all.

Miss Xiguan and Master Dongshan

Xiguan is outside the west gate of the old Guangzhou City, while Dongshan is outside the east gate. They are far from each other. Historically, there are obvious differences in the cultural characteristics of the two places. Xiguan is a bustling downtown area with a low-lying terrain, a watery country, a network of rivers and a dense population. Dongshan, on the other hand, is a high-lying place with a vast territory and a sparsely populated area. At the beginning of the 21th century, American Christianity chose Dongshan as its missionary base. The elegant living environment opened by the church attracted a large number of returned overseas Chinese to settle in build house. Since then, the desolate Dongshan Mountain has become increasingly noisy and has become a residential community with high-grade buildings.

There is a common saying in Guangzhou, "Young Master Dongshan, Miss Xiguan", which means: Dongshan is a place where powerful officials live, and most of the people who come in and out are official children. Dongshan Mansion, an imitation western villa built by some overseas Chinese and military and political bureaucrats in the early years of the Republic of China, was built in places such as Xinhepu and Companion Courtyard Road in Dongshan, Guangzhou, attracting dignitaries to live together. "Master Dongshan" came from this; Xiguan is a prosperous commercial area, and a young lady from a wealthy family is dancing like a butterfly. The girls here are real ladies. They are slender, soft in Cantonese, well-educated, and some can do some handicrafts. They respect their elders and have the traditional virtues of China. Garden-style houses and xiguan big house, power and wealth, modernity and tradition, are separate and complementary.

Commercial "arcade"

After the Opium War in p>1841, the development of modern architecture in Guangzhou experienced several stages, such as the migration of western architecture, the revival of traditional architecture and the introduction of modernist architecture. Western architecture has the following types in Guangzhou, such as the Catholic Sacred Heart Hall (stone room) and other religious buildings; Such as Guangzhou Postal Administration Building, Guangdong Customs Building, City Hall Building, Provincial Department of Finance Building, Provincial Federation of Trade Unions Building and other public buildings; Such as xiguan big house, Bamboo House, Dongshan Garden House and Xiaoyanglou; Memorial buildings such as Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall and Seamen Pavilion; There are also buildings such as Aiqun Building, South Building, City Bank Building, Provincial Bank Building, Xinya Hotel and commercial arcades all over Guangzhou.

In fact, the commercial arcade building was first seen in ancient Greece more than 2,111 years ago, and then it became popular in Europe, and only spread to all parts of the world in modern times. Because the "arcade" part of the commercial building is built across the sidewalk in the first half of the building, it is connected with each other along the road to form a promenade for free walking, which can reach hundreds of meters or even more than one or two kilometers long. There is a saying in Guangzhou that "a child's face changes in May", so "arcade" just adapts to this climate feature, and it is popular all over Guangzhou for a while, and gradually forms the main pattern of Guangzhou street view. "The" arcade "buildings are concentrated in commercial streets such as Shifu Road, Shangxiajiu Road, Zhongshan Road, Jiefang Road, Renmin South Road and Yide Road. And the "arcade" in Xihaokou area is the most verve: Xinya Hotel, Nanfang Building and Aiqun Building are all outstanding in Guangzhou's early "arcade" buildings. After the 1961s, this form has rarely been adopted in newly-built commercial districts in Guangzhou.

Xiguan Ancient House

Xiguan is the name given by the old Guangzhou people to the area in Liwan District of the city center, which starts from Xicun in the north, borders the Pearl River in the south, reaches Renmin Road in the east and Xiaobeijiang River in the west. In ancient times, it was located outside the west gate of Guangzhou City. There are many typical traditional old houses in this area, which are called "Xiguan Old House". These old houses used to be the residences of wealthy businessmen, tall and bright, with a combination of halls and groups and beautifully decorated. On both sides of the big house, there is a Qingyun Lane, which is also called cold lane, fire lane and water roll, and has the functions of ventilation, fire prevention, drainage, lighting, drying, transportation and planting flowers and trees. The existing number of ancient big houses in Xiguan has changed from more than 811 in the heyday of the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China to less than 111, among which the big house at No.15 Fuzheng Street in Shisan is worth visiting.