Chaozhou-Shantou Road Trip (44).
Meizhou is known as the "Hakka Capital of the World," so of course you have to learn about Hakka culture when you visit. The first stop is the China Hakka Museum. The museum consists of the main building and several branch museums, including the Huang Zunxian Memorial Hall, Meizhou University President's Hall, and Meizhou Celebrity and Honest Official Hall. The main building introduces the origins of the Hakka people, their geographical distribution, customs, language, architecture, food, and more. The Hakka people are mainly concentrated in the neighboring areas of Jiangxi, Fujian, and Guangdong, with Jiangxi's Ganzhou and Fuzhou, Fujian's Longyan, and Guangdong's Meizhou as the main areas. Most of the Hakka people among overseas Chinese and compatriots in Hong Kong and Macau are from Meizhou, which is why it is called the Hakka Capital of the World. Many people know about the Hakka Tulou in Fujian, but the Hakka Weilong House is the representative of Hakka residential architecture in Meizhou, and there is a detailed introduction here.
The Huang Zunxian Memorial Hall is to the west of the main building, connected by a bridge over the Zhouxi River. Huang Zunxian was an official in the late Qing Dynasty, serving as a counselor in Japan, consul general in San Francisco, counselor in the UK, and consul general in Singapore and Malacca. He is known as the first person in modern China to go global. He actively participated in the Self-Strengthening Movement and the Hundred Days' Reform, playing an important role. He was also a famous poet and a pioneer of modern Chinese poetry reform, and one of the Eight Sages of Meizhou. The memorial hall consists of Renjinglu, Rongludi, and Yuanendi. Renjinglu is a house he built when he returned to his hometown in his later years, designed by himself, with some Western elements, and was where he read and stored books. Rongludi is his ancestral home, with displays of Hakka folk culture. Yuanendi is a residential house next to Rongludi, with the same architectural style and well-preserved.
The Meizhou Celebrity and Honest Official Hall and Meizhou University President's Hall are to the east of the main building, both old buildings from the Republic of China period, but for some reason, they are not open. Not far southeast of the museum is Dongshan Academy, also a historical building, but unfortunately, it was closed. I don't know if it's because of the pandemic, but I hope they will open in the spring, so visitors from afar won't be disappointed.
China Hakka Museum