Introduction to Shanxi Merchant Guild Hall

Yu Qiuyu said in his article "Ashamed of Shanxi": "Now there is a large-scale 'Chinese Opera Museum' in Suzhou. I have accompanied foreign artists to visit it many times, and almost every time the guests are amazed. Incredible. Especially the exquisite stage and performance venue, even international architects like I.M. Pei regard it as a miracle, but the original site of the entire museum is the "Sanjin Guild Hall", which was where people from Shanxi came to do business in Suzhou. It’s a gathering place. Speaking of which, Suzhou is considered prosperous and prosperous, but I didn’t expect that Shanxi people could easily build a guild hall and take over the whole place.”

This hall was the residence of Shanxi and Shanxi merchants during the Guangxu period. The three countries of exchange, handling goods and printing accounts raised funds to purchase the building, which covers an area of ​​five acres. The architecture inside the museum combines the rugged and bold style of the north with the exquisite and elegant features of the south of the Yangtze River. The tall beams and squares of the front door are decorated with brick, wood and stone carvings of operas, and on the left and right are water-polished brick eight-character walls, which is majestic. The halls in the museum may be spacious and airy, or simple and elegant; the halls and ponds are covered with red maples and bananas, adding to the poetic atmosphere. The splendid ancient opera theater, with its dragon and phoenix carved rafters, flying eaves and towering terraces, is the essence of the entire building and the most exquisite existing classical opera chamber in Suzhou.