Qiangang Ancient Village is located in Qiangang Village, Taiping Town, covering an area of over 50,000 square meters with more than 900 houses. The majority of the villagers have the surname Lu, and records show that they are descendants of Lu Xiufu, the Prime Minister of the Southern Song Dynasty. Most of the houses in the village were built during the Qing Dynasty, with some structures retaining the architectural style of the Song Dynasty.
Qiangang Ancient Village features four gate towers, nine academies, three ancestral halls, and four watchtowers. Outside the village, there is a ‘Village Protection River’. The village’s alleys are numerous, deep, and winding, with complete facilities such as houses, ancestral halls, pavilions, and ponds, making it a well-preserved typical representative of Guangfu residential architecture. Within the ancient village, there is the Guangyu Ancestral Hall, which is the ancestral temple of the Lu family from the Southern Song Dynasty. It was built in the same year as the Forbidden City in Beijing and has a history of nearly 600 years. The Guangyu Ancestral Hall has been designated as a cultural relics protection unit by the Guangdong Provincial Government and won the first place in the ‘UNESCO Asia-Pacific Cultural Heritage Protection Award’ in 2003, holding extremely high historical and cultural value among ancient Chinese villages. The village is open all year round, 24 hours a day.
