Peitian Ancient Village－Known as Civilian Imperial Palace
By admin on 2014-12-16

Peitian Ancient Village is located on the foot of Guanzhai Mountain in Liancheng County, Fujian Province, 39 kilometers to the county of Liancheng and 60 kilometers to the county of Changting. It is surrounded by mountains and divided by a river, which formed beautiful natural sceneries.Since the Ming and the Qing Dynasties, the village has served as a key interchange station connecting official roads to Changting and Liancheng. The history of the village could be traced back to the Southern Song Dynasty about some 800 years ago.

Local architecture features rich ornaments. Thanks to the well-preserved building complex, Peitian Ancient Village is reputed as civilian imperial palace.Consisting of over 30 beautiful houses with tall halls, 21 ancient ancestral temples, 6 studies, 2 ancient street-crossing honorific archways and one 1000-meter-long ancient street, Peitian Ancient Village is compact, orderly, and harmonious, and arranged in a rational way. It possesses the distinct characteristic of Ming & Qing architectures. For example, the entertainment and leisure manor-like architectures of government official halls, residence of Da Fu (an official title in the feudal time) and residence of Jin Shi (a name for those who passed the highest imperial exam) are large-scale village houses constructed in the structure of "nine halls & eighteen well holes", in the layout symmetrical along the central axis, combining the halls with the courtyards, and of extremely high value of research and appreciation.

Peitian families are fond of growing orchid. Moreover, Peitian Village is famous for its academies of classical learning, with Southern Mountain Academy as its main school. The village not only owns traditional Confucian schools, but also had schools of agriculture and crop cultivation. There are boy and girl schools and schools of martial arts.

The village is also well-known for its Shifan Music. The children in Peitian love Shifan Music particularly when it is played with puppet shows. With rich culture and beautiful views, Peitian Village is a must-see spot in Fujian Province.