The Three-Inch Golden Lotus Museum is located in the Xizha scenic area. It is one of the few museums with the history of foot-binding as its theme. Here, you can see hundreds of pairs of bound feet shoes from different periods and regions in China. There are also numerous pictures and foot-binding tools, accompanied by detailed text descriptions, telling people about a period of Chinese women in the old days.
The origin of the name ‘Golden Lotus’ is said to be derived from the story of Princess Pan of Emperor Donghun of the Qi Dynasty in the Southern Dynasties who walked with lotus blossoms under her feet step by step. Later, it was further subdivided into noble and humble, beautiful and ugly according to size. Those within three inches are called golden lotuses, those within four inches are called silver lotuses, and those larger than four inches are called iron lotuses. Thus, golden lotus became a synonym for small feet. Later, golden lotus was also used to generally refer to bound feet shoes. Tourists who come to the Three-Inch Golden Lotus Museum either admire the exquisite embroidery on the golden lotus, or more often sigh and lament over that morbid history of foot-binding. Comparing today’s gender equality, and then looking back at those shocking photos, perhaps you will have a deeper understanding of the joys and tears of Chinese women in the past.Opening hours: Open all year round from 09:00 to 17:00.
