What are the characteristics of Guangzhou?

Brilliant "Lingnan Culture"

Guangzhou is a famous cultural city with a long history of 22 10 years, and it is one of the first batch of famous historical and cultural cities in China announced by the State Council. In the long history, many places of interest, such as Nanyue King's Tomb, Guangxiao Temple, zhenhai tower, Liu Rong Temple, Nanhai Temple, Wuxian Temple, Huaisheng Temple, Chenjia Temple, Sacred Heart Temple and Sanyuan Palace, have witnessed the historical and cultural city of Guangzhou. Guangzhou combines the essence of Chinese and foreign cultures and forms a unique Lingnan culture. Lingnan School of Painting, Lingnan Architecture, Lingnan Garden, Lingnan Bonsai, Guangdong Music, Cantonese Opera, Cantonese Cuisine, Urban Landscape and Living Customs all reflect the features of Lingnan culture.

Tea drinking culture

"I can't forget drinking tea in Guangdong." People in Guangzhou love to drink tea, especially morning tea. When we meet in the morning, the greeting in other places is "Have you eaten", while in Guangzhou, it is often "Have you had tea". Drinking tea in Guangzhou is actually going to the teahouse, not only drinking tea, but also eating snacks, a cup of two pieces, leisurely; Drink not only morning tea, but also afternoon tea and evening tea; Not only can you fill your stomach, but you can also spread news, talk about friendship and negotiate business. It can be seen that drinking tea has surpassed the category of "tea" in a sense and become a social way. Drinking tea constitutes a distinctive feature that distinguishes Lingnan culture from other cultures. The time-honored teahouses in Guangzhou are Taotaoju, Luyuju, Afraid of Fragrance, Nanyuan, Beiyuan, Panxi, Datong, Huiru, Sanru, Duoru, Bridgette, Dexin, Zheng Xin, Fulaiju, Xihuaju and Meizhenju.

"Flower Street"

Guangzhou is also known as the Flower City. People in Guangzhou love flowers, and they can't grow up without them. Rich people will buy several pots of imported flowers of several thousand yuan each. No matter how poor the family is, it is necessary to provide Qing with a pot of kumquat and a few daffodils. On New Year's Eve, an old man and a small flower street is a tradition, and it is also the highlight of Guangzhou citizens. 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. The city government makes great efforts to decorate it every year. After the opening of the flower market, when the lights were just turned on (traffic control was implemented), people walked in the flower street in an endless stream. At eight or nine o'clock, people were like a tidal wave, bustling and lively. The flower street is noisy and crowded, and it is inevitable to bump into each other, but people are polite, especially modest and tolerant, with smiles and joy on their faces. Generally speaking, most of them were mainlanders a few days ago, because most mainlanders want to watch the CCTV annual party. Cantonese seldom watch CCTV. After visiting the flower market on the 30th, I often go sighing and drinking tea at night. The flowers in the flower market are colorful and varied. Imported products include lavender in Europe, rich brown in Thailand, tulips in the Netherlands, roses in northern Europe, five generations living under one roof in South America, rhododendrons 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 implies, Flower Street is mainly for sightseeing and appreciation. If you buy it, you must buy a little, but you can have more or less to show good luck. Therefore, when couples visit the flower market together, they will buy at most one or two roses, silver willows and lilies; Families choose local traditional kumquat, rich bamboo, peach blossom, rich tree, good luck and so on. People in Guangzhou think that exotic flowers and plants 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 Flower Street is to touch some flowers, drive away bad luck, and 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 old Guangzhou, and Dongshan is outside the east gate. The two are far apart. Historically, there are obvious differences in cultural characteristics between the two places. Xiguan is a bustling downtown area with low terrain, water towns, dense river networks and dense population. Dongshan, on the other hand, has a high terrain, a vast territory and a vast territory with few people. At the beginning of the 20th century, American Christianity chose Dongshan as its missionary base. The open and elegant living environment of the church has attracted a large number of returned overseas Chinese to settle in the houses under construction. Since then, the desolate Dongshan Mountain has become more and more noisy and has become a residential community with high-grade buildings.

There is a saying in Guangzhou called "Master Dongshan, Miss Xiguan", which means: Dongshan is a settlement of powerful people, and most of them are children of bureaucrats. Dongshan Mansion is an imitation Western-style villa built by some overseas Chinese and military and political bureaucrats in the early years of the Republic of China. It was built in Xinhepu and Lianyuan Road in Dongshan, Guangzhou, attracting dignitaries to live. "Master Dongshan" came from this; Xiguan is a bustling business district, and a rich lady dances. The girls here are real ladies. They are slender, soft in Cantonese, well-educated, and some can make 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.

Traditional characteristic buildings in Guangzhou:

Commercial arcade

1840 After the Opium War, 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 in Guangzhou has the following types, 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 Finance Department Building, Provincial Federation of Trade Unions Building and other public buildings; Such as xiguan big house, Zhulou, Dongshan Garden House and Xiaoyanglou; Memorial buildings such as Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall and Seamen's Hall; There are also buildings such as Aiqun Building, South Building, Chengxing Building, Provincial Building, Xinya Hotel and commercial arcades all over Guangzhou.

In fact, commercial arcade architecture was first seen in ancient Greece more than 2,000 years ago, and then it became popular in Europe, and it didn't spread all over the world until 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 free-walking corridor, which can reach hundreds of meters or even one or two kilometers in length. There is a saying in Guangzhou that "a child will change his face in May", so "arcade" just adapted to this climate feature, which was popular all over Guangzhou for a while and gradually formed the main pattern of Guangzhou street view. The "arcade" buildings are concentrated in the commercial streets such as Shifu Road, Shangxiajiu Road, Zhongshan Road, Jiefang Road, Renmin South Road and Yide Road. The "arcade" in Xihaokou area has the most charm: Xinya Hotel, Nanfang Building and Aiqun Building are outstanding among the early "arcade" buildings in Guangzhou. After the 1960s, this form was rarely adopted in newly-built business districts in Guangzhou.

Xiguan laodawu

Old Guangzhou people call it Xiguan, which starts from Xicun in the north, the Pearl River in the south, Renmin Road in the east and Xiaobeijiang in the west. It was located outside the west gate of Guangzhou in ancient times. 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 beautifully decorated. There is a Qingyun lane on both sides of the big house, also known as cold lane, fire lane and water roll, which has the functions of ventilation, fire prevention, drainage, lighting, drying, transportation and planting flowers and trees. The number of existing ancient big houses in Xiguan has changed from more than 800 in the heyday of the late Qing Dynasty to less than 100, among which the big house at Shisanfuzheng Street 15 is worth visiting.