Huaxi Tower in Bozhou City
Chinese Name: 亳州市花戏楼
English Name: Huaxi Tower in Bozhou City
Type: Amusement Park , Points of Interest & Landmarks, Cuture Attractions
Best Time: All Year Around
Recommended Visiting Hours: 1 Day
Opening Hours: 08:00-17:00
Ticket: 60 RMB / Person
Location: Xianning Street, Baocheng District, Bozhou City, Anhui Province(安徽省亳州市谯城区咸宁街)
Cultural Background of Huaxi Tower
As one of the birthplaces of the Chinese people, Bozhou has a history of more than 3,700 years.The city’s long history, splendid ancient culture and many famous people have left Bozhou with plenty of valuable ancient relics. Bozhou has 18 key cultural relics sites under state- and provincial-level protection; 36 under municipal protection and 150 ordinary sites. Among them are the famous Huaxi Tower with its marvelous carvings and colorful paintings.
Huaxi Tower is a state-level cultural relic protection site, originally known as the Guan Yu Temple, also called Shanxi-Shaanxi Assembly Hall, which was established by Shanxi Pharmacists in Bozhou during the reign of Qianlong in the Qing Dynasty .It is located in the north of Bozhou city and southern side of Guoshui River. Because the brick carving, wood carving and color painting of Huaxi Tower mostly focus on the local opera zigzag opera, so they are commonly known as Huaxi Tower.
Architectural Pattern of Huaxi Tower
The gate of Huaxiu Building is three-storey archway with imitation wood structure and brick carvings inlaid on the wall of water-grinding brick. The main building of Huaxi Building is 10 meters high. The stage of the theatre building is convex. The eastern side of the theatre building is the Bell Tower, while the western side is the Drum Tower.
Main Attractions of Huaxi Tower
The tower faces the southern area with the total architectural area of 3163.1 square meters. The main building in the garden is the Grand Hall, and the drama tower is also built nearby. The watching towers are both built on the both sides of the drama tower for appreciating the drama performance. This is a big garden with tall walls. Besides there are also two small gardens on both sides of Grand Hall, the west one for Zen, and the east for treasure god.
Opera Theater(戏楼）
The both sides of Drama Tower are Bell Tower and Drum Tower, but the drum has been missed. There are three houses outside of bell tower. These houses were used for the giant businessmen from Shanxi and Shaanxi provinces. So Huaxi Tower has three roles of entertainment (drama performance), religion (Guandi Temple, who was the city god) and business. The Grand Hall is divided into the front hall and the back hall. The front hall is delicately decorated for performance enjoyment. The back hall is also divided into two parts.
Iron flagpole(铁旗杆）
Huaxi Tower Scenic Area has “three unique”, the front two iron flagpole of the main door, 16 meters high, weighing 24 kilograms, straight into the clouds, there are 24 square bells on the flagpole, because of its ingenious conception and fine casting, it is called one of the “three unique” in Huaxi Tower.
Brick Carving(砖雕）
The brick carvings of Huaxiu Tower belong to Jin School’s micro-carving art. The scenes are magnificent. Although the characters are as small as peanuts and rice grains, they are vivid and different in appearance. They are well-structured, rounded in lines, rich in subjects and intrinsically related. At the same time, they absorb the exquisite and exquisite carving techniques of Hui School.
Zhu Gong Academy(朱公书院）
Zhu Gong Academy is located in the east of Bozhou Huaxi Theatre Building. It was built in the thirty-seventh year of the Qing Dynasty (1698). It is the ancestral hall built by Bozhou people to commemorate Zhu Zhilian(朱之琏). It is now a subsidiary building of Flower Theatre Building.
How to Get to Huaxi Tower
By Self-driving
Route :
Suzhou-Nanluo Expressway Turns Bofu Expressway-Bozhou Lower Expressway about 16 kilometers to downtown-Weiwu Avenue Left-Heping West Road Right-Old Street of Ming and Qing Dynasties-Huaxilou
By Bus
Take Bus No. 1 at the railway station to the Old Street of Ming and Qing Dynasties, and walk for 8 minutes.
By Taxi
It costs 18 yuan to get there by taxi at the bus stop.
Useful Travel Tips
1. Opening Hours
8:00-17:30(Monday-Sunday, January 1-December 31)
2. Tickets
- The entrance ticket for the Huaxi Tower in Bozhou City is ¥60/person.
- Preferential Policy: disabled persons with valid certificates free.
- Preferential policies: Children’s tickets with height of 1.2-1.4 meters, 60-69 years old with old people’s certificate to buy old people’s tickets.
