Chengkan village in Huizhou District, Anhui province is famous for
the residential architecture of the Ming and Qing style. Baolun Hall
in the Ancestral Temple of Luo's, built during the Jiaqing's reign,
is a representative collection of typical Huizhou architecture.
The
temple covers an area of 5 mu (1/3 hectare), Baolun Hall were well-designed
and constructed with extreme delicacy. Through the first entrance, visitors
reach "Tianjing" - a square dooryard with rooms on each side designed
for enough lighting and draught. Secondly, comes a great hall, in which
four vermilion posts support the timber frame. Further across a yard
is the main hall - Baolun Hall.
The design of this timber frame hall is delicacy and unique. Exquisite
engravings of flowers and geometric pattern on the bluestone parapets
and creative colored paintings on the beams, lintels and doorframe lure
many foreign visitors. The colors remain bright and fresh although throughout
ages. A pair of wooden staircases ascends to the second floor on which
though the finely engraved casements, visitors can have a perspective
of the Huangshan mountians.
The residential houses in Chengkan village are of high value on the
research of China's folk architecture and have been designated as a
provincial preservation.